December 14, 2005

This is more fun than the average dictionary, and catnip for Anglophilacs.
Collins Word Exchange-Collins Word Exchange - Online Dictionary

Collins Word Exchange is the most fun FREE online dictionary around, with definitions from the Collins English Dictionary and a facility that captures new words the public suggest should be in the dictionary, as well as being constantly updated by Collins Word Web(R). Forex:

New words on the Collins Word Exchange chronicle a stormy year of drug snorting, binge drinking, and happy slapping. Word fans across the UK have been entering the words that have defined their year into the Collins online dictionary - www.collins.co.uk/wordexchange

Winter and a tsunami hits Asia

The tsunami in Asia last Christmas leads to a host of new words - grief inflation, tsunamigenic, tsunami generation, and competitive compassion.

Blunkettgate starts with a paternity battle and Blunkettisms continue throughout the year.

Chav becomes a phenomenon, encouraged by TV series “Little Britain”.
Other words include: langer (in Ireland), chavalry, chavalcade, chaveller’s cheques, chavaphobia, chavitude, chavtacular, chaveller, chavster, and hoodies.

Su Doku mania sweeps the country, becoming so popular that fans’ partners become Su Doku widows.

Spring and ‘God’s Rottweiler’ gambols through the Vatican

God’s Rottweiler, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is elected to the papacy following the death of Pope John Paul II. The public is also introduced to the phrases secret cardinal and ‘in pectore’.

Happy slapping, the new youth phenomenon, hits the headlines along with concerns over phone chicken, mobile bullying, and daisy chaining.

There are TBGBs in the political world as the election campaign kicks off an exciting year in politics, with phrases such as do-it-all mum, schoolgate mum, battle of wounded arm, dog-whistle politics, astroturfing, retail politics, sunset clause, numptorium, and taxigate. Veritas, Kilroy-Silk’s political party, becomes Vanitas.

Murray Mountain is the new name for Henman Hill as Andy Murray proves himself at Wimbledon. Andymonium and Murrayfield also join the list of new words.

Summer arrives and Cocaine Kate comes out to play

7/7, the terrorist attack that hits London, overshadows the G8 summit at Gleneagles. Spirits are lifted with Bob Geldof’s Live 8 concert.

Toxic soup in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina hits the city. A little closer to home Merkelian is the name for the views of politician Angela Merkel in the race to win the German elections.

Cocaine Kate is snapped snorting. This leads to talk of slummy-mummies and tall-poppy syndrome.

Autumn and the fashion world pulls on pubic pants and muffin tops

Trojan ducks and sentinel chickens emerge as Europe discovers the first case of bird flu - H5N1. There is a Car-B-Q in Paris as rioting takes place in the city.

Vertical drinking - licensing law reforms spark debate over drinking - kebab and fight culture, dispersal zone, lager loutette, and Saga lout.

The First English Children’s Book from China Enters Denmark Palace:

This year is the 200 year celebration of Denmark’s great children’s book writer H.C.Anderson’s birth. Denmark has arranged many events to let people all over the world memorialize this writer. Recently, Chinese writer Wang Jian received an autographed letter from the private secretary of Denmark Queen Margrethe II stating that “When Your Heart Seeks the Sky,” his English children’s book, has entered Denmark Palace and is collected by Denmark Queen Margrethe II.

Because I’m in a holiday mood, and Mackinac Island Press is an independent Michigan publisher like me…

Holiday book is hot pick | Ann Arbor District Library:

Holiday book is hot pick

A clever new children’s book Has anyone seen Christmas? by Anne Margaret Lewis, is getting a lot of attention this season. Illustrated by Wendy Popko, this picture book tells what happens when little Emit falls out of Santa’s sleigh. The book was published in September by Mackinac Island Press.

The release of the Da Vinci Code trailer is exciting. Click below to watch the trailer:

http://www.sonypictures.com.au/movies/thedavincicode/index.html

Macleans Looks at ‘Times of the Civil War’; Leaves Open Question for Modern Media:

(PRWEB) December 14, 2005 — Macleans, the Toronto based magazine, posed a parting question for the media after reviewing Times of the Civil War by Don Bracken.

”The ‘fog of war,’ Carl von Clausewitz’s metaphor about how the chaos of combat confounds the best-laid plans of military strategists applies equally well to war correspondents,” Macleans stated in its opening comment on Bracken’s book during an Autumn 2005 review.

“Don Bracken’s ingenious construction, Times of the Civil War — half reference book, half gripping narrative — is also a cautionary tale for journalists. Bracken looks at the U.S. Civil War’s major battles — an astounding total of 384 — through the lenses of the contemporary press: the New York Times for the Union and the Charleston Mercury for the Confederacy. Then he offers a judgment from modern historians.”

To further its advisory points of media caution, Macleans referred to the reportage of the great battle in Maryland that prompted Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. “Antietam (or Sharpsburg, as it’s known in the South — the two sides can’t even agree on the name) is nowadays reckoned a Union victory,” Macleans wrote, “but the Mercury also reported it as a triumph for its side, the result not of deliberate lying but of survivors’ confused accounts. Whether modern media do any better is an open question,” the Canadian magazine said in conclusion.

This book makes an excellent point.