The Deep North

I see Pierre Poilievre illegitimately harnessing the warranted righteous anger of Canadians with the powers that be. He's fooling the less intellectually able into embracing the establishment of a more intense, mean spirited, and societally damaging regime more directly and exclusively in the control of the powers that be. None of our leaders are what they should be, but replacing a poor leader with a bad leader is not a solution to our discontent.  What I find particularly vexatious is the appeal to hatred of another leader, hatred of outgroups, hatred of the less fortunate, and appeals to self-interest over the interests of others. The majority of us will not prosper by tearing down social safety nets and healthcare. I really want to think that Canadians are better than this.  “Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of i...

In the grand bazaar of languages, English is the shopaholic, ever eager to fill its lexical cart with linguistic souvenirs from around the globe. This insatiable appetite for loan words not only enriches its vocabulary but also cements its status as the world's Lingua Franca. As lexicographer Kory Stamper once quipped, "English has been borrowing words from other languages since its infancy," highlighting its long history of linguistic acquisition. But it's James Nicoll's observation that truly captures the essence of English's relationship with other languages: "English doesn’t borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar." This magpie-like tendency to collect shiny objects from other tongues makes English uniquely suited to serve as a global bridge. By incorporating words from an estimated 350 languages, English becomes a linguistic tapestry that ref...