It might be commonly said that we ‘acquire’ knowledge, ‘acquire’ a smartphone, or ‘acquire’ a verruca – in less common parlance is the word ‘deacquire’. It’s traditionally used though, for reasons that are not altogether clear, when referring to museums and their collections. In the same way as a museum might, for example, ‘acquire’ The […]
Tag: words
A word count counter’s diatribe: 24/7
Earle Spamer wrote us a scathing letter, about some of the 24/7 Lectures. In case you are not familiar with the 24/7 Lectures, which happen every year as part of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, here’s what they are: Each year at the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, we invite some of the world’s top thinkers […]
Stories that only have six words. A valid category of ‘Narrative Genre’?
Stories that only have six words. Are they truly a ‘Narrative Genre’? David Fishelov, believes that they maybe. He’s a professor of comparative literature. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. See his essay on the subject. ‘The Poetics of Six-Word Stories’ * (It’s published in Narrative, January 2019.) The professor considers stories from websites. Such […]
Effect of swearing on strength and power performance (study)
Dr Richard Stephens, of Keele University, UK, was a co-recipient of the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain. Since then, his work on swearing has continued, and he’s the lead author of a 2018 paper for the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise (Volume 35, March 2018, Pages […]