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the good wordGood Word, TheLanguage and how we use it.2NA=1154&NC=1204&DI=4098&PS=58322&PI=7315GoodWordfalsefalsespacernotembeddedthe good wordCan a Woman "Prong" a Man?Jesse SheidlowerfalseWhy it's so hard to put sex in the dictionary.noCan a Woman "Prong" a Man?Why it's so hard to put sex in the dictionary.noWARNING: This piece contains vulgar language—lots and lots of it—that may be inappropriate for children or the faint of heart.truenotochyperlinkno2009101112713AMThursdayOctOctober1110/1/2009 3:27:13 PM6338999323300000002009101112713AMThursdayOctOctober1110/1/2009 3:27:13 PM633899932330000000the good wordIf You Seek Amy's AncestorsJesse SheidlowerfalseBritney Spears didn't invent the dirty pun in her new song title. She stole it from Joyce and Shakespeare.noIf You Seek Amy's AncestorsBritney Spears' "If U Seek Amy" pun was cribbed from Joyce and Shakespeare.noLast week, Britney Spears released the video for her recent single "If U Seek Amy." As many have pointed out, the song's title, when spoken aloud, sounds a lot like "F-U-C-K me." Indeed, that's the only way to interpret it, since the lyric itself makes no sense in context: "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy." The suggestive video even begins with a TV news anchor speaking the title over a chyron that reads, "Britney Spears Song Lyrics Spell Out Obscenity in Disguise," so there's no possibility that the pop star is trying to sneak something through. Has Britney pioneered a new kind of dirty pun?truenotochyperlinkno200931860142PMWednesdayMarMarch183/18/2009 10:01:42 PM633729961020000000200931965106AMThursdayMarMarch63/19/2009 10:51:06 AM633730422660000000the good wordWho Checks the Spell-Checkers?Chris Wilson1/123122/2202502/wilsonc.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200910144405PMThursdayOctOctober1610/1/2009 8:44:05 PM633900122456402263200910144405PMThursdayOctOctober1610/1/2009 8:44:05 PM633900122456402263200910144405PMThursdayOctOctober1610/1/2009 8:44:05 PM633900122456402263false2008101711707PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:17:07 PM6335984622700000002008101711707PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:17:07 PM633598462270000000falseMicrosoft Word's dictionary is old and outdated. Here's how to fix it.noWho Checks the Spell-Checkers?How to fix Microsoft Word's spell-checker.noOn April 30, 2007, with all the usual fanfare that accompanies a software update, Microsoft added Barack and Obama to Office's dictionary. It was a fairly quick canonization for the Illinois senator. His surname had been on Microsoft's candidate list for new words since Jan. 5 of that year, and his first name followed three days later, in the same recruiting class as Zune, Klum, and Friendster. Three months later, it was official—no longer would Microsoft suggest Boatman as a replacement for the future president's last name.truenotochyperlinkno2008123165516AMWednesdayDecDecember612/31/2008 11:55:16 AM6336630331600000002008123165516AMWednesdayDecDecember612/31/2008 11:55:16 AM633663033160000000the good wordCzar WarsBen ZimmerfalseHow did a term for Russian royalty work its way into American government?noCzar WarsWhy do we have so many "czars"?noWhen Benjamin Franklin wanted to describe our national indifference to royal pomp and circumstance, he would compare Americans to a London porter whose heavy load once jostled Czar Peter the Great. When told he had just bumped into the czar, the porter responded: "Poh! We are all czars here!"truenotochyperlinkno20081229112420AMMondayDecDecember1112/29/2008 4:24:20 PM63366146660000000020081229112420AMMondayDecDecember1112/29/2008 4:24:20 PM633661466600000000the good wordEpic WinChristopher Beam1/123122/2202502/beamc.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200910143232PMThursdayOctOctober1610/1/2009 8:32:32 PM633900115521938347200910143232PMThursdayOctOctober1610/1/2009 8:32:32 PM633900115521938347200910143232PMThursdayOctOctober1610/1/2009 8:32:32 PM633900115521938347false2008101711612PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:12 PM6335984617200000002008101711612PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:12 PM633598461720000000falseGoodbye, schadenfreude; hello, fail.noEpic WinWhy is everyone saying "fail" all of a sudden?noWhen Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson testified before the Senate banking committee last month about Paulson's proposed bailout bill, a demonstrator in the audience held up an 8.5-by-11 piece of paper with one word scrawled on it in block letters: "FAIL." Earlier in September, Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson was dubbed by some bloggers an "epic fail." Grist magazine invoked the phrase when John McCain told a Maine TV reporter that Sarah Palin "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States." And just last week on the Atlantic's Web site, Ta-Nehisi Coates found the theory that Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Barack Obama's memoir so "desperate" he called it an "Epic Fail."truenotochyperlinkno20081015115558AMWednesdayOctOctober1110/15/2008 3:55:58 PM63359668558000000020081015115558AMWednesdayOctOctober1110/15/2008 3:55:58 PM633596685580000000200311442702PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:02 PM631781584220000000200311442702PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:02 PM631781584220000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM631390436830000000200181561521PMWednesdayAugAugust188/15/2001 10:15:21 PM631334961210000000