An Ode to The Economist
Well, OK, not an ode. Poe-tree ain't mah thang.
I love the magazine The Economist. It is simply the best newsmagazine I have ever found. First of all, it is actually NEWS. Not celebrity news. Not health reports. NEWS. Second of all, it actually seems to grasp that (gasp!) there are other countries on the planet besides the United States of America. (This may have something to do with the fact that it is based in London, which is in ... some other country.) The scope of the news they provide is amazing. Within the last month I have read extensive articles about Evo Morales, the Pushtunwali, Genghis Khan's 800th birthday and many others.
But that's not what I'm here to preach on today. I am here today to tell you that The Economist will improve your vocabulary, if you let it. The Clam and I are both wordsmiths. We come from a family of wordsmiths. We regularly tease a young cousin, who interrupted a heavy debate at a family gathering a few years ago about "staunched vs. stanched" with the plaintive cry of the teenager:
"Why do we always have to talk about WORDS?!?!"
Well, in an effort to improve my already stellar vocabulary, I made a pledge to myself and the brilliant journalists (it isn't NECESSARILY an oxymoron) at The Economist: if I don't KNOW the word, I will look it up. Now, that's a tricky point. I often don't "know" the word; meaning that I can infer from the context what they are trying to say, but if someone were to ask me to define the word in question, I couldn't.
That will never do, I decided. I will look up every word that I am not comfortable with. So, for example, I looked up fripperies, with is a word I have seen before, but it turns out I would not have defined it correctly if there had been a quiz. And, although I was familiar with intifada, I was fascinated to see that the Arabic origin of the word is: to be shaken, to wake up.
However, The Economist regularly uses words that I have never seen anywhere else. Some of them are clear favorites of the magazine, like internecine, which I have seen several times now, and anomie, which is destined to become a new favorite of mine. (Look them up if you don't know them!) Additionally, I have learned Russian words taiga and dacha, and the Italian word omerta.
Then there was this gem: dissever. I saw the word and thought: Dis-sever, to put back together? To not tear apart? But that wouldn't fit with the rest of the sentence. So I looked it up. Dissever means to sever. WHAT? How does that make sense? Isn't that a double-negative?
This is a great example of why English is such a tricky language....but I love it so!
I love the magazine The Economist. It is simply the best newsmagazine I have ever found. First of all, it is actually NEWS. Not celebrity news. Not health reports. NEWS. Second of all, it actually seems to grasp that (gasp!) there are other countries on the planet besides the United States of America. (This may have something to do with the fact that it is based in London, which is in ... some other country.) The scope of the news they provide is amazing. Within the last month I have read extensive articles about Evo Morales, the Pushtunwali, Genghis Khan's 800th birthday and many others.
But that's not what I'm here to preach on today. I am here today to tell you that The Economist will improve your vocabulary, if you let it. The Clam and I are both wordsmiths. We come from a family of wordsmiths. We regularly tease a young cousin, who interrupted a heavy debate at a family gathering a few years ago about "staunched vs. stanched" with the plaintive cry of the teenager:
"Why do we always have to talk about WORDS?!?!"
Well, in an effort to improve my already stellar vocabulary, I made a pledge to myself and the brilliant journalists (it isn't NECESSARILY an oxymoron) at The Economist: if I don't KNOW the word, I will look it up. Now, that's a tricky point. I often don't "know" the word; meaning that I can infer from the context what they are trying to say, but if someone were to ask me to define the word in question, I couldn't.
That will never do, I decided. I will look up every word that I am not comfortable with. So, for example, I looked up fripperies, with is a word I have seen before, but it turns out I would not have defined it correctly if there had been a quiz. And, although I was familiar with intifada, I was fascinated to see that the Arabic origin of the word is: to be shaken, to wake up.
However, The Economist regularly uses words that I have never seen anywhere else. Some of them are clear favorites of the magazine, like internecine, which I have seen several times now, and anomie, which is destined to become a new favorite of mine. (Look them up if you don't know them!) Additionally, I have learned Russian words taiga and dacha, and the Italian word omerta.
Then there was this gem: dissever. I saw the word and thought: Dis-sever, to put back together? To not tear apart? But that wouldn't fit with the rest of the sentence. So I looked it up. Dissever means to sever. WHAT? How does that make sense? Isn't that a double-negative?
This is a great example of why English is such a tricky language....but I love it so!
posted by The Big Seester | 2:27 PM
10 Comments:
I share your passion for words and the English language TBS. (...and also read the Economist occasinally)
I know that you catch a lot of CBC television, but how about CBC radio? I think you'd enjoy it. They're always on about the proper use of words, and the listeners are constantly complaining about the misuse, or mispronunciation of this word or that. There's even a whole show about language that you might like called "And Sometimes Y" (you can read more on this at: http://www.cbc.ca/andsometimesy/).
In Detroit, you should pick CBC Radio One up (from Windsor) at 1550 AM - this is the one with all the talk shows, while CBC Radio Two at 89.9 FM is mainly music.
By the way, were you aware of the blog at: http://goldsteins.typepad.com/taleoftwosisters/ ...also (apparently) called: "A Tale of Two Sisters"?
Hail! Finally somebody realizes the merits of The Economist.
Do you know they jsut recently celebrated their 1 millionth subscriber???!!!
I sent a letter to them that I was ashamed that there was only 1 million people and they should advertise on my show.
They did not respond.
Blast them.
Thanks for the tip about the other Tale of Two Sisters, London Rob - I just glanced at it and decided I like this one MUCH better! :-)
The Clam
DJ,
I would love to share my back issues with you - it feels so wasteful throwing them away. I was hoping to do a trade with The Canuck, who has a subscription to MacLeans, but he is apparently not interested in broadening his horizons. Plus he just stopped bringing me his old MacLeans. How am I supposed to stay abreast of Canadian politics now?
TBS
Rob,
I listen to Radio 2 all the time. For a looong time Detroit had no classical station (which is a crying shame). Now we have one again, but it really feels like Top 40 classics. You know, like those CDs you can buy: Greatest Piano Melodies; Hits from Opera.
Thanks for the tip about "And Sometimes Y." I'll have to check it out.
Well, the thing about the blog is: my sister (The Clam) was supposed to post too. But since she hasn't in three months, I'm pondering re-naming the blog. We'll see. I'm not very clever about stuff like that.
TBS
Hey there Cap'n!
Only 1 million readers? Are we talking world wide here? No wonder I feel like I'm surrounded by idiots most of the time...
I must say however, that the name doesn't help. I ignored it for years because I thought it was about economics (and short of 1 high school class, I really have no background in that). So I walked around griping about "news" papers, programs and magazines which talked ad nauseum about celebrities, tv shows, health stuff and other crap that isn't real news.
Does your show get podcasted? (It's a radio show, right? I lurk on your blog but very rarely post.)
TBS
Yes you can, and yes you're right. You pay THROUGH THE NOSE.
Which is why I threw myself on the mercy of The Canuck to get it.
I cannot complain though, because he is currently smuggling me the entire Coronation Street Secrets DVD set, one at a time, which he can get through Zip but I cannot get through Netflix. So he's a pal.
TBS
Awesome!!! One million and one subscriptions! What do you think about THAT, Cap'n?
Of course, I don't subscribe to it. I buy it every week. Apparently my mail goes through the Detroit sorting facility, and they find magazines to be annoying. I don't get the MONTHLY magazines I subscribe to. A WEEKLY magazine would probably make their heads explode.
TBS
I also love the Economist, and have read it since childhood, actually. Consider Financial Times too. I think you'd love it!
Nina
Many of the gentleman who worked at WQRS (I was listening when the programming abruptly changed to "alternative" music) continue their work as a web radio station:
www.classicalmusicamerica.com
Dave Wagner is one of the hosts on the new classical radio station; the other hosts aren't as knowledgable. I miss the rich background of WQRS and their supply of original recordings from the '30s.
Post a Comment
<< Home