Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A Harmless Drudge

I first became aware of Kory Stamper via the "Ask The Editor" videos on Merriam-Webster Online (my preferred internet dictionary). Was it the now-famous "octopodes" video? I do believe it was.

(Note to self: Firefox does not recognize "octopodes" as a word. Unacceptable.)

Now, don't get me wrong - Peter Sokolowski and Emily Brewster (the other editors featured on the M-W video page) are also quite rad. I think I noticed Kory's videos first because she was so amazingly expressive and funny in addition to being intelligent. If I'm being honest with myself, the purple hair probably influenced my decision to actually watch one of her videos, too. That was not exactly what I was expecting of someone who worked on a dictionary.

Kory Stamper talks about her own preconceived notions about the dictionary in the inaugural post on Harmless Drudgery, her newly-launched blog. I am very excited that this is happening, because I had been thinking since I started following her Twitter account that hers was a voice that would be fascinating in the blogging world. She's erudite and witty, but with a healthy lack of pretension about her craft and herself. She certainly handles being a "bewildered internet phenom" with more aplomb than I likely would. (Seriously guys? Calm down already.)

I'm glad Kory Stamper has finally succumbed to the terrible disease that is blogging. Be sure to read what she has to say, and perhaps we will encourage her to never find a cure!

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