@grammargirl@zirk.us
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

grammargirl

@grammargirl@zirk.us

Grammar Girl. Podcaster. New York Times bestselling author. Quick and Dirty Tips founder. Bad skier. California. she/her

#AmWriting 5/28 Grammar Girl podcast
#AmReading In the Lives of Puppets (TJ Klune)

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ernie, to random
@ernie@writing.exchange avatar

Earlier this year, I published a list of blogging pioneers. It drew a lot of debate and discussion, but I thought it was overall a good list that highlighted people early to the game that didn’t often get the nod: https://tedium.co/2023/01/04/10-blogging-pioneers/

I’m sad to reveal that one of those pioneers, Heather “Dooce” Armstrong, has died at the age of 47. https://www.today.com/parents/moms/dooce-dead-at-47-rcna83793

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@ernie Oh, wow. That's awful and sad.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

To celebrate my Writing Email course passing the 15,000 learner mark in just two months, I've made it FREE for a limited time!

Once you click the link, you'll have 24 hours to view the course on LinkedIn Learning. 🎉

Learn to write messages that get the results you want because they are easy to read, easy to manage, and easy to act on.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grammargirl_to-celebrate-my-writing-email-course-passing-activity-7062093267139506177-gxO1

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

I love clever uses of incentives and tech: Cities are using traffic lights near schools that start red and turn green if an approaching car isn't speeding.

If you're good, you get to keep driving. If you're bad, you have to stop and wait for the light to turn green.

The average speed on the road almost immediately dropped to the speed limit as people learned the rules.

Instead of punishing people with tickets after the fact, it creates the behavior the city wants.

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2023/05/05/steal-this-idea-in-quebec-a-new-traffic-light-only-turns-green-for-safe-drivers/

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@flargh I remember that! His work may have been my first introduction to theories about incentives.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

The word "hill" just started looking weird and unwordlike to me. I hate it when that happens!

jeffjarvis, (edited ) to random
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social avatar

OMG, doing PR for Holmes in the puffiest puff piece. "If you are in her presence, it is impossible not to believe her, not to be taken with her and be taken in by her." Call the deprogrammers.
Liz Holmes Wants You to Forget About Elizabeth https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/business/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-interview.html?smid=tw-share

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@jeffjarvis Ugh! The brilliant Phyllis Gardner had no problem immediately seeing through the Holmes BS.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

Reminiscing about the time I asked someone for a horizontal picture, and she sent me a picture of herself lying sideways on a bench.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

I'm super excited for some new things I hope to bring you in the fall.

That is all.

Just sitting here drinking my tea being excited. :)

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

I guess this means I wasn't wrong to be uncertain about who should email first after being introduced!

jeffjarvis, to random
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social avatar

I cannot find the Clarence Thomas-tuition story at all on the NY Times and the Post underplays it in a small box down the page. Terrible news judgment.

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@jeffjarvis Wow, that's shocking even for them.

evoterra, to random

As a purveyor of snark myself, it's not surprising I have snarky friends.

Case in point from @james in @Podnews today:

"Podcast analytics company Backtracks is to close. An email to customers gives three weeks notice. In spite of significant email marketing, the Podcast Index showed that just 191 podcasts were using Backtracks as a podcast hosting platform in February, and 253 podcasts using the company’s prefix URL. The company had raised $3.7m of funding."

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@evoterra @james @Podnews W.O.W.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

I got some bad news this morning, so it was a two-chocolate-dessert lunch.

I'm trying to justify a third, but it's not like anyone died. I think I have to stop at two.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

ChatGPT and the like are changing the way I think: I'm less accepting of tedious tasks.

The solution isn't even always ChatGPT.

I got tired of making example sentence slides and thought, "There MUST be away to automate this."

Turns out, Canva Pro, which I already pay for, lets me bulk upload text to make slides with a template.

What took me 40 minutes last week will take me <10 next week.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

In many languages, the word for "bear" is descriptive because people were superstitious about saying the actual name. Translations:

Welsh: honey-pig

Irish: the good calf

Lithuanian: the licker

Russian: one who leads to honey

Germanic: the brown one

https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/b/Bear.htm

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@miblo Nice!

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@hugovk Wow!

I think "Deep-forest gentleman" and "sooty boy" are my favorites.

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

Almost nothing beats getting out for a long walk.

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

A good public-benefit scam to pull would be to periodically post things like "I can't explain why yet but change your passwords IMMEDIATELY for [pick random website here, let's say Instagram], trust me I'm an infosec professional". Even if none of these corresponded to real exploits you'd get lots of people to change passwords on various websites at random, which longterm would improve the security of the entire Internet if any of those sites got coincidentally compromised a year before or after

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@mcc I've often thought I should add changing a password to the set of good things I do for myself every day: go for a walk, do a Spanish lesson, change a password.

estherschindler, to random
@estherschindler@hachyderm.io avatar

"I think that if you want to know how something is made, you should look for the grids. They are the ever-present, behind-the-scenes structure of our cities, our machines, our homes, and our lives." https://alex.miller.garden/grid-world/

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@estherschindler This reminded me of a web designer who said "respect the grid" to me so emphatically 20 years ago that I still think of it.

glennf, to random
@glennf@twit.social avatar

Missed the exciting news that the boffins at NASA JPL have figured out a way to use reserve power to keep using all the scientific instruments on board Voyager 2 for even longer. For a mission that only had a requirement to last until about 1982, job well done. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-will-do-more-science-with-new-power-strategy

Several years ago, I wrote extensively about space probes, including six articles about or involving the Voyager probes! https://glog.glennf.com/blog/2017/8/4/if-you-love-voyager-like-i-love-voyager

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@glennf Nice use of "boffins"!

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

A friend asked me to look at his new website, and I almost wrote to tell him he had a stray comma on the landing page ... until I realized it was a speck of dust on my monitor.

evoterra, to random

New profile photo from my amazing photographer friend, Bruce Press, taken yesterday on our walk through old San Juan.

I’ll be busy changing out all my profiles with this one, cuz I look snazzy.

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@evoterra Very snazzy!

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

If you hear someone say, “My car needs warshed,” you know you’re in the Midland dialect territory.

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@jsit Interesting. I have a piece about the positive "anymore" coming up. I don't think I've ever heard the positive "anything" used in the way you describe, but I'll look into it more now.

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@cohomologyisFUN "Needs washed" is also part of the Midland dialect. https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/why-do-people-say-warsh-instead-of-wash/

grammargirl,
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

@jsit That would be great. Thanks!

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