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Stan Carey

@stancarey.bsky.social

Copy-editor, writer, lapsed biologist in Ireland Copy-editing, writing: https://stancarey.com Language blog: https://stancarey.wordpress.com Strong language: https://stronglang.wordpress.com 🎞 https://letterboxd.com/stancarey 🦣 @stancarey@mastodon.ie

2337 Posts4853 Follower267 Folgt
Strong Language@stronglang.bsky.social · last mo.

Ucking shi! It's a decade since @stancarey.bsky.social wrote this for Strong Language and nearly two decades since Flight of the Conchords was aired stronglang.wordpress.com/2016/06/23/f...

Flight of the Conchords uckin’ with my shi-

New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, consisting of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, had a two-season TV series in 2007–09 full of inspired parody and goofy adventures. The show’s langu…

stronglang.wordpress.com

Stan Carey@stancarey.bsky.social · last mo.

Because I moonlight as a language blogger, here's a post full of data on "greenlit" vs "greenlighted" (and their hyphenated forms): stancarey.wordpress.com/2023/08/15/h...

Has ‘greenlit’ been greenlighted?

The verb greenlight, or green-light, means to give something approval or permission to proceed: you give it the green light, metaphorically. What past-tense form of the verb would you use in these …

stancarey.wordpress.com

Benjamin Dreyer@bcdreyer.social · last mo.

The past tense of to moonlight is moonlighted. The past tense of to gaslight is gaslighted. The past tense of to greenlight is I don't particularly care, but it seems that in the past two decades greenlit has taken the lead, so fine with me.

Deborah Rose@deborahrosereeves.bsky.social · last mo.

Feel like I’m spamming you today soz! But I have never forgotten the delight upon seeing these two pages in the middle of her short story Real Estate where the protagonist can’t stop laughing at her husband's infidelities. "There had been a parade of flings – in the end, they'd made her laugh. Ha!”

Pages from a book. On either side of the blank space of the middle spine is printed the word Ha! Over and over again. Ha! ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! And on and on. Ha!
Stan Carey@stancarey.bsky.social · last mo.

Or as C.S. Lewis put it, "Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." That troubling "without end" takes on dire new implications under billionaire-funded longtermism, as this thread outlines

Courtney Milan@courtneymilan.com · last mo.

The funny thing (it's not really funny) about the various cults that dip into and out of AI is that the most chilling thing I've heard from AI boosters isn't "AI will kill everyone." It's "we will use AI to benefit all of humanity."

Caitlin Cooper@caitlinmaycooper.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Best plural forms ranked: 1) internal (tours de force, culs-de-sac) 2) ending in -i (magi) 3) is to es (oases) 4) suppletive (people) 5) vowel changes (geese) 6) f to ves (thieves) 7) adding en (oxen) 8) no change (moose) 9) adding es, ies (boxes, babies) 10) adding s

Stan Carey@stancarey.bsky.social · last mo.

"What leads an artist dedicated to an ideal of artistic autonomy to repudiate that ideal, committing themselves to solidarity with the perpetrators of genocide?" Michael G. Cronin on John Banville and the politics of literature under neoliberalism: www.anclogan.ie/art-for-the-...

Art for the Market's Sake: John Banville's False Autonomy

"It's nice to see a work of art win", John Banville said on winning the Booker Prize. Michael G Cronin traces a line from that remark to the neoliberal creative economy, and from there to Banville's d...

anclogan.ie

Stan Carey@stancarey.bsky.social · last mo.

At rehearsals for Endgame in London in 1964, Jack MacGowran was wondering how best to deliver the line, "If I knew the combination of the safe, I'd kill you." He asked Beckett for advice, and Beckett said: "Just think that if you knew the combination of the safe, you would kill him."

Tits McGee@scientits.bsky.social · last mo.

I love hearing about the acting notes directors give actors, and a good one-liner is often enough for the actor to do the best job they can

Stan Carey@stancarey.bsky.social · last mo.

Slang "balls" connotation is unfortunate. But defending the grammar: —This "less" has been in continuous use in good literature for centuries —"More" covers count & non-count nouns in the other direction; no one minds or notices —The rule against "less" with countables is an arbitrary modern dogma 🤷

Darach Ó Séaghdha@darach.bsky.social · 2mo ago

That Lotto “less balls” ad campaign is going to push my blood pressure to dizzying new heights. FEWER! FEWER BALLS!