Pathos

Words that sit in a happy place between Woke and Maga.

Archaisms are antiques with a patina of neutrality.

Feb 20 •

The figure Ariana Grande uses to play coy

Its official name: the accismus. I call it the Oh-you-shouldn’t-have figure.

Jan 9 •

The fantods of dank beldams and other bijou words

Would sympathy for an empath make you gladsome?

Jan 6 •

The crashing magic of sound symbolism

Or, Things That Go Doink in the Night

Nov 25, 2024 •

Brain training with an ex-parrot

The synonymia is a figure that can temporarily liberate us from our smartphones.

Nov 21, 2024 •

How to manipulate a parent

Warning: The following very cool material is also morally dubious.

Nov 14, 2024 •

Magic in the Great Green Room

You will find almost all of rhetoric's power in this one children’s book.

Nov 11, 2024 •

Meet the Feghoot, a pun-enabled shaggy dog

Tell a story that makes bogs dark and Britannia waive the rules.

Nov 7, 2024 •

Tropes weaponize everything.

So why do I love them? And what exactly is a trope?

Oct 28, 2024 •

To win over any audience, find the commonplaces.

When you go highbrow, others might want low.

Sep 30, 2024 •

The secret to fear? Timing.

The immediacy of panic creates a problem for us persuaders.

Aug 29, 2024 •

Do we need a Society to Limit Acronym Proliferation (SLAP)?

We need to see all those LOLs and ICYMIs and contrived acronyms for what they are: a human version of what bonobos do to each other.

Aug 19, 2024 •

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