From the Oxford University Press blog

There are some things I love to an unhealthy degree, such as The Shield, Russian imperial stouts, George Carlin's comedy, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and Evil Dead 2. My heart beats equally fast for the Dictionary of American Regional...

My friend Neil says I am a comedy librarian. I know what he means. Maybe because my home does not ring with the laughter of children or supervillains, I have to fill the void with yuks of other sorts.

Or maybe I just know how to put myself in...

Words come from everywhere. TV shows are productive -- look at "Battlestar Galactica's" "frak," Stephen Colbert's "truthiness," and "30 Rock's" "blurgh." Wacky news events like the Steven Slater JetBlue story get people talking about "hitting the slide" or "pulling a Slater." Politicians accidently coin terms like "misunderestimate" and...