The Telegraph catches up with John Simpson as he prepares to retire from his role as chief editor for the Oxford English Dictionary. “I used to keep a notebook in my pocket in case I came across new words,” Simpson says at one point. “That worked until I put my trousers in the washing machine.”
“Our job is to analyse data, not to love words.”
On bad taste
In the world of fine art, is there such a thing as bad taste anymore? Based on the recent Swedish MOMA cake controversy, I’d say, um, heck yes.
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Miami in Literature
Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban, sits down for an interview about Miami’s place in literature. This year, Miami’s enjoyed the literary spotlight quite a bit: at the National Book Awards ceremony, Books & Books proprietor Mitchell Kaplan took home the Literarian Award. Likewise, the Miami Book Fair International wrapped up another successful year on November 18th.
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Films About Writers
“There are a lot of bad movies about writers out there,” but Flavorwire has ranked the 50 best, ranging from Sylvia to The Hours to Adaptation.
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La Grande Mort
“A coroner’s pronouncement of suicide (felo da se) resulted in forfeiture of the deceased’s goods and property to the state, often leaving any surviving relatives destitute. So the increasingly common verdict of temporary insanity (non compos mentis) may suggest a change in how people understood the act of self-destruction: no longer construed as a demonic temptation, it came instead to be viewed as a symptom of lunacy.” On the prevalence of suicide in eighteenth-century English literature.
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What They Want
Among the raft of news stories that came out about Facebook recently, you may have missed the company’s quiet revolution in grammar, signified by its adoption of the much-debated singular “they.” If thinking about this change makes you queasy, just remember that singular “they” has been around since the days of Chaucer. (Related: Fiona Maazel on bad grammar.)
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Big Kindle On Sale
Normally $379, the Kindle DX, Amazon’s oversized version of the regular Kindle, is today going for $299 thanks to a one-day sale.
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