How to be a Do-gooder

Language for Profit

Have you ever heard of or gone to FreeRice.com? The profit here is mostly for others -- the hungry -- but you will also get something out of it: improving your vocabulary, checking your grammar, testing your foreign language vocabulary and learning more, …. Try it when you have a few spare minutes. It beats veging (Do you spell this word with one ‘g’ or two?) with computer solitaire! For each correct answer that you click on, 20 grains of rice will be donated to the UN World Food Program.

Words for the Day

Like many people who live in an area where the public transportation options are not great, I get a lot of my news and other information from listening to National Public Radio (NPR) on the radio in my car. I think it was a couple of days ago that I was listening to NPR’s broadcast of the BBC when I heard about an interesting project that the Collins Dictionary has undertaken: eliminating 24 rarely-used words from their dictionary. To many this may seem like a big deal, but to those of us who love language it is. If you’d like to see the list and choose which words you’d like to preserve, please go to http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/09/vote-to-save-a.html to cast your vote. It’s also been said that using the words may help to grant them a stay of execution. I’ve chosen my words but I have to admit that I did not recognize any of the words, though I was able to guess at least partial meanings for a few. Please check it out and write a comment.

Commercial Interlude

There are some interesting ads in the upper right quadrant of this page. Since you’ve shown an interest in language by coming here, please check out some of the services they offer when you have a chance.

Well that wasn’t actually an interlude since I’m going to sign off now. Thanks for coming!

Ciao for now,

Eileen