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    <title>The Word Guy - ArcaMax Publishing</title>
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	<description><![CDATA[The Word Guy  Channel Feed]]></description>
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	<copyright>Copyright 2012 ArcaMax Publishing</copyright>
	
	
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		<title><![CDATA[And Now for Some Trash Talk]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[With the help of Mim Harrison's delightful book "Words at Work," let's
go Dumpster diving and examine some jargon from the world of garbage
collection ... er, "waste management."

If you still think of a garbage truck in the generic terms of your
...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1147924</link>
 
    <pubDate>May/23/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[These Boots Were Made For...]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today, two random dispatches from the Word Front. First, "Talking the Walk"

"I am a slow walker," Abraham Lincoln once said, "but I never walk
back."

If only today's politicians would follow honest Abe's example. Every
day, it seems some public ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1144628</link>
 
    <pubDate>May/15/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[What's the Scoop on 'Troop'?]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Q. What's up with the noun "troop"? The definition of this word as I
learned it and as defined by Merriam-Webster is "a group of soldiers."
Yet, so frequently these days, I hear or read lines such as "three
troops were injured today," with the ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1141412</link>
 
    <pubDate>May/09/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[A Child's Garden of 'Versus']]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Q. Last year, we had a foreign exchange student from Germany stay with
our family. When he wanted to challenge our boys to a video game, he
would say he wanted to "verse" them. I have never heard of that form of
"versus" being used that way. Now ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1137936</link>
 
    <pubDate>May/02/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Don't Flout the Rules on 'Flaunt']]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Q. Could you please explain the difference between "flout" and "flaunt"?
-- John Daigle, Vernon, Conn.

A. There's a difference? Just kidding, though the frequent misuse of
"flaunt" for "flout" makes me suspect that the distinction between these
...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1134368</link>
 
    <pubDate>Apr/25/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[To 'B' or Not to 'B']]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Q. Can you explain the origin of the word "subtle" and why the "b" is
silent? Is there any other word that has a silent "b"? -- Joanne
Anderson, New Britain, Conn.

A. At the risk of being not so subtle, <i> I love the word "subtle"
</i>! Why? ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1130969</link>
 
    <pubDate>Apr/18/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Breaking the Bank]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Q. The screen on my bank's ATM machine closes all transactions by
telling me, "We appreciate you choosing (Bank XYZ)." Instinctively I
feel that it should be "We appreciate <i> your </i> choosing (Bank
XYZ)." Or is the bank, as always, right? -- ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1127799</link>
 
    <pubDate>Apr/11/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Honoring Our 'Nother' Tongue]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Q: I'm wondering whether you can shed some light on the phrase "a whole
nother," as in "a whole nother ball of wax." I am hearing it more
frequently of late. -- Roselle Haas via email

A: "Nother" first appeared in written English in 1909 but was ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1124719</link>
 
    <pubDate>Apr/04/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[English Faces Triple Trouble]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[What group constitutes the greatest danger to English?

Is it the Great Unwashed -- careless abusers of grammar, usage,
punctuation and pronunciation who pollute the linguistic atmosphere with
blunders?

Is it the Great Prewashed -- denim-clad ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1118410</link>
 
    <pubDate>Mar/28/2012</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Sleeping Like a Log in a Hotbed]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[Right now, I'm facing a huge backlog of work: tall stacks of papers to
grade, long lists of emails to read, and big, circular blocks of oak
firewood to split and stack (thank you, October snowstorm).

That wood, in fact, harbors a clue to the ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-1114895</link>
 
    <pubDate>Mar/21/2012</pubDate>
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