Category Archives: libraries

  1. Cactus, Serapes, and Friendship

    Leave a comment

    December 5, 2025 by libroshombre

             Having a brother-in-law who’s also a friend is one of life’s true blessings.  Knowing of my obsession with Patrick O’Brian’s sea …
    Continue reading

    Category: books, botany, ecology, libraries, plants | Tags: , , , , ,

  2. Confusion, Erasers, and Phonetics

    Leave a comment

    November 3, 2025 by libroshombre

                Sure seems like there’s more confusion afoot than usual, but I suppose confusion’s a constant throughout human history.  Even Daniel Boone …
    Continue reading

    Category: abbreviations, alphabet, Arkansas, libraries, phonetics | Tags: , ,

  3. Actaeon’s Dogs, Reading Neurobiologically, and de Gaulle

    Leave a comment

    November 2, 2025 by libroshombre

    The eminently browsable Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has revealed Ovid’s list of the fifty dogs who were once …
    Continue reading

    Category: animals, books, dogs, libraries, literacy, mythology, paper, print, reading, reading brain | Tags: , , , ,

  4. Roger, Venn, and Confiscius

    Leave a comment

    November 2, 2025 by libroshombre

                We swim in a sea of symbols: acronyms, emojis, icons of all sorts, etc.  As old Confucius declared, “Signs and symbols …
    Continue reading

    Category: abbreviations, libraries, libraries and librarians, library associations, pirates, politicians, politics, symbols | Tags: , , ,

  5. Doozy, Ditto, and Spud

    Leave a comment

    July 24, 2025 by libroshombre

                Three disappearing words popped up recently when I treated a couple of my oldest friends from Texas to a …
    Continue reading

    Category: automobiles, cars, language, libraries, mechanics, slang, wordplay, words | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

  6. Pop, Pop-Up, and Popping Weasels

    Leave a comment

    July 24, 2025 by libroshombre

                Billie Holiday once said, “Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was …
    Continue reading

    Category: beverages, books, libraries, nursery rhymes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

  7. Xylariums, Razors, and Pogo Sticks

    Leave a comment

    July 24, 2025 by libroshombre

                The poet John Dryden wrote, “Words are but pictures of our thoughts,” and a couple of new ones – …
    Continue reading

    Category: art, books, comic strips, comics, exercise, libraries, nature, philosophy, wood, words, xsports | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

  8. Clichés, Word Banning, and Cherries

    Leave a comment

    May 21, 2025 by libroshombre

                “Keep your eye on the ball” has to be one of baseball’s most fundamental clichés in teaching batting skills, …
    Continue reading

    Category: African American, baseball, grammar, history, libraries, Library of Congress, politicians, politics, sports | Tags: , , , , ,

  9. Reduplications, Great Shifts, and Free Speech

    Leave a comment

    May 12, 2025 by libroshombre

                Reading my old copy of “Dictionary of American Slang” (DAS), compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Flexner in 1960, …
    Continue reading

    Category: book banning, books, English language, grammar, language, languages, libraries, slang | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

  10. Cockroaches, Melting Hearts, and Mark Twain’s Library

    Leave a comment

    May 12, 2025 by libroshombre

    Getting from having a cockroach to Mark Twain’s death-defying miracle started with reflecting on weird idioms, “a group of words …
    Continue reading

    Category: books, grammar, languages, libraries, love, printers, printing | Tags: , , , , , ,

« Older Entries

Archives