A Confession. I hate the word “wordsmith.” When I hear it, I immediately think, “Cheesy.” I imagine a New Age-y guy wearing a blacksmith’s smock, holding a feather pen [aka, “quill”]. Why isn’t “writer” a sufficient title? It’s mysterious and provocative all on its own. Why the compulsion to dress it up, make it cute, trot it out on a business card? I know calling oneself a “wordsmith” is perfectly acceptable to Merriam-Webster, but even my computer’s spell-checker looks at it askance. It underlines “wordsmith” with a series of tiny red dots, asking quietly, “Are you sure that’s right?” No, I’m not sure. I’m not sure at all. [A Google image search for “wordsmith” led me to this. Note that Sir William Wordsmith is an unsuccessful writer. See?]
It’s a Slow News Day“I’m Heading to Wikiality. Yes, the Stephen Colbert-inspired spoof of Wikipedia. It’s the Truthiness Encyclopedia coming straight to your computer through a series of tubes. I tested the search engine with “Hemingway” and found no entry listing, but I did find three Hemingway-related links, including this one:
- The DaVinci Code (1,008 bytes)
6: where it would take one million monkeys typing for eternity to produce a work of Shakespeare, and 10,000 monkeys typing for 10,000 years to yield a Hemingway (but you gotta get ’em drunk), it would take ten monkeys a 3 day weekend give you a Dan Brown novel, but they wouldn’t have to type it, they just smear it on the wall.
Searching for “literature” redirects you to “Books” (as in, don’t read them).