Wor(l)ds Collide Today I was on a conference call -- they're called "telcons" or t/c for short -- this phrasing was novel to me -- and this woman who FDA-reviews all of our press releases was like, "Oh, how do we punctuate that safety label? I really need to bring in my copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves!" Clearly it was a joke so we all chuckled politely. But I felt strongly that my two worlds of nerds (who study language) and PR flacks (who misappropriate it) had overlapped, which doesn't happen very often. Sure enough, no one else had any idea what the hell she was talking about. They thanked me for explaining the joke after the call. But I've now established myself as the all-time biggest grammar geek in the office.

Eh, could be worse. 

¶ 10:53 PM