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I have been trying to get my head round the Climategate scandal – but it’s useless. I don’t understand the words.
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Businessdictionary.com sent me the definition for ‘sustainability’. I was pleased. This is one of the words that I rarely, if ever, understand and yet it comes up so often in editorial work. I suspect the conspirators who laugh at editorial staff promote the words ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability’ just to cause confusion. They come up in almost every topic, apart that is, from plain English. › Continue reading

The more I try to change my career path, the more I realise that editorial work is probably the best work in the world – despite the lack of reward or general appreciation. This week I did a project management course. The trainer talked about ‘forming, storming, norming and performing‘. This is a technique for managing your team, but somehow it made me think of the police and how they manage demonstrations. › Continue reading

Yes, it’s a pun. Brilliant isn’t it? Clearly the word ‘plane’ here is used to mean ‘plain’ but conjures up images and the suggestion of aeroplanes. At least, that is, for those who know how to spell – and of course, only in writing – not in broadcast or other forms of verbal communication.

I don’t think those anti-aeroplane people hired a marketing professional. I don’t think a single one of them even did a copywriting course. And for once in my life, I think that’s a pity. › Continue reading

It was only about a week ago that the news was full of foreboding, doom, depression, debate on quantitative easing and pictures of Gordon Brown, frowning like a constipated puppy next to headlines about deficit forecasts. But now we have all been saved (again) apparently – or have we? Could it just be that very few of us – economists included – really understand any of the words being used to describe the present ‘global economic crisis’? › Continue reading

Following some very frightening revelations from the world’s leading climate scientists this week, George Monbiot has used his Guardian blog to suggest the term ‘climate change’ needs updating.

The expression ‘climate change’ was first advanced in a memo from the Republican political strategist Frank Luntz, who found that those attending his focus groups thought it sounded less scary than ‘global warming’.

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