Wine update!

I added a wine to the “Vino” list. A Beaujolais. So yum!

Now, I must go and think of creative days to kill the day and try not to eat so bloody much. Christmas has been a terrible time for my waistline.

Evolving language, and the news sites that try to explain it

Earlier in the month, Merriam-Webster crowned “w00t” the word of the year. Reuters has a good story on this, and hilarious descriptions and explanations of where the word comes from:

Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said “w00t” — typically spelled with two zeros — reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.

A new direction? Maybe. But Merriam-Webster President John Morse’s take on “w00t” and other l33t speak is pretty laughable:

“People look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A,” he said. “This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character.”

I fail to see how using a number in place of a letter is “more efficient.” How does one really even pronounce a zero? If we call letters as they sound, then w00t should be pronounced “wuhzerozerotuh.”

But it isn’t. Because that would be dumb.

w00t!