Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

the saltcellar and the sea

Well, last night, after the plenary speech of the LSA in Oakland, a bunch of linguistics bloggers got together at the Mexicali Rose and slung words. Tensor, of Tenser, Said the Tensor, with his purple hair and charming wife, organized it. I was the last to arrive. When I introduced myself by my real name, people just stared, then I said, “Oh, Uncle Jazzbeau,” and knowing nods of recognition all around. First time I’ve done that in public. In no particular order, but moving round the table mentally à la Simonides of Ceos, we were: Mark Liberman of Language Log, Narissa of Journal Extime, yours truly, Uxor Tensoris of Terminal Student, Tensor, David Wilton of Word Origins, Grant Barrett of Double-Tongued Word Wrester, Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large (North America) of the OED, and Russell of Every Way But One.

At my end of the long table, we discussed ASL, loud deaf parties, Klingon, Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, the possibility of Geoff Pullum doing two constructed languages for a movie version of the same, Neal Stephenson and his œuvre, Julian Jaynes’ The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Dan Brown, Stephen King, belly dancing, conspiracy theories, comment spam, French and Vietnamese spooneristic literary devices, the incrediably strange book called Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and its Transmission Through Myth, and the general linguistic and film critical silliness of John Simon. I was sorry I forgot my copy of The F-Word for Jesse to autograph. D’oh!