by Mark O'Brien | Apr 28, 2015
There’s a difference between melting and dissolution, as witnessed in the contrast between America’s former glory as the world’s Melting Pot — and today’s inglorious reality of cultural conflict, class friction, and political palaver about...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 24, 2015
idiom: noun — an expression, the meaning of which is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements My recent post about malaprops had me thinking about idiomatic expressions. One, in particular, has stuck with me because of its pertinence to the...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 22, 2015
The image above has been making the rounds in various web media for a while — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, et al. In the interest of giving proper credit for the image, I searched for attribution for its creator and could find none. Nevertheless, I use it here to...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 21, 2015
While surfing the web the other day, I came across a company, the website of which said this, in part: [We provide] world-class solutions for tools-based modernization solutions. No. I’m not making that up for the purpose of making a point. Like innovation,...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 20, 2015
Anybody who notices unpleasant facts in the have-a-nice-day world we live in is going to be designated a curmudgeon. (Paul Fussell, 1924-2012) I live in fear of becoming a curmudgeon. I think it’s because I prefer facts to fabrications. In that regard, I...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 17, 2015
I know of only one person like Norm Crosby. That would be Norm Crosby, who’s also the only person I know who could make a career out of malaprops. The rest of us typically have to make careers out of avoiding them. In fact, Christina Desmarais recently wrote an...
