Beefed-up Blogroll

photo courtesy of Calgary Review

It sounds like a sandwich you might find in one of those interesting new food trucks that are popping up all around Philly these days.  But, no.  I've just added another "bundle" to my More Links page.  This one's focused on the English Language in general.  I'm new to most of the blogs and still feeling my way around, but enjoying the reading quite a bit.

These blogs bring my dad to mind a lot, and that's a nice thing.  He loved working with words.  After retiring somewhat early from his first career, he returned to a love he had been nurturing since college days.  (Heyyy, that sounds familiar ...)  Dad's early study of romance languages lead him to his second profession as a translator.  He worked from home, translating from Spanish, Italian and other languages to English.  When he wasn't in his upstairs office, he was usually within 2 feet of a Quote-Acrostic puzzle in progress. In ink, of course!  Playing Scrabble with Dad was just impossible.  I generally just played for second place.  Eventually, he would just sit nearby and be the reference when we were too lazy to go get the dictionary from the other room.

Among the blogs that have me wishing I could forward a link to my dad are John McIntyre's work at the Baltimore Sun and a new one by Kory Stamper called harm.less drudg.ery.  My dad's political opinions might differ from Mr. McIntyre's, but the sense of humor and love of language in both of these blogs would be something he'd appreciate.  I miss my dad during this season of family and friend connections and I'm happy to be reminded of him whenever I check my blog reader.