Books
From 2005 to 2007, Georgia resident Laura Mallory unsuccessfully attempted to ban Harry Potter books from the libraries in the Gwinnett County school system. The seven-part series about the young wizard by J.K. Rowling ranks as the most challenged set of books since 2000 . Mallory's efforts are among the more than 3,000 challenges against the book based on what opponents perceive to be Satanic undertones.
Books
Banning A Book In Work
Oxymorons
An oxymoron is a combination of words that contradict each other. Here are some of our favorites.
The First Novel Was Written by A Woman
In the year 1007 a Japanese noble woman, Murasaki Shikibu, wrote the world’s first full novel. Called “The tale of Genji,” it tells the story of a prince looking for love and wisdom. In its English translation it covers 54 chapters over 1000 pages of text.
Proper Grammar: Comma
Some say proper grammar is on its way out. Rapid-fire communications technologies, particularly short forms like texting and Twitter, seem to make the use of complete sentences, let alone correct punctuation, very 20th century.
Insurance or Assurance?
The terms insurance and assurance have literary differences as well as technical differences in them. A rather thin line separating the meaning of two terms, their linguistic usage and usage as a terminology in common contractual and business language. The similarities in meaning of the two terms and the final result of being insured and assured about something is a cause that leads to confusion. It often leads people to connoting the two to be similar, congruent and even synonymous. A small explanation about the difference in the two words has been explicated in the following paragraphs.
Sofa So Good!
A pun is a kind of word play which creates equivocalness between two similar-sounding words, simply for fun. The pun can be intended or unintended, an intended pun is widely used in literature for a rhetorical effect.
English Is A Funny Language!
The English language is a language of business and multicultural communication. You can see how different cultures deal with it, adding a lot of reasons for you and me to laught at! Check it out for yourself!
Shall Ye Not?
In a 1631 edition of the King James Bible – in Exodus 20 verse 14 – the word “not” was left out. This changed the 7th commandment to read – “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Most of the copies were recalled immediately and destroyed on the orders of Charles I. But there are 11 copies still remaining. They are known as the “Wicked Bible.” (The Bible museum in Branson – Missouri has one on display.) The printer was fined the equivalent of $400.
Art and Literature Facts
In 1961, Matisse’s Le Bateau (The Boat) hung upside-down for 2 months in the Museum of Modern Art, New York – none of the 116,000 visitors had noticed.
Grooks
A philosophy of a close link between the subjectivity of the fine arts and the objective world of science made Piet Hein (1905-1996) one of the most original Danes of the 20th century.
"English as She is Spoke", a real puzzling book
The Voynich Manuscript
Imagine a "Guide" written in an unknown alphabet, in an unknown language, at an unknown date and place.
Answers on everyday questions!!!
Odd Articles in The Old Encyclopedia Britannica
The first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in 1768 and included some odd entries, even describing monsters as a human species. The editors of British newspaper The Daily Telegraph share some of the weirdness.
The Big Cheese
The phrase “big cheese” originates from the Persian and Hindi word “chiz” which means “thing.” In 1886, Sir Henry Yule wrote that “it was common among Anglo-Indians” to say something is “the real big chiz.” The “big chiz” became “big cheese.” The phrase is most commonly used to refer to someone of importance or, in the least, someone who thinks he/she is the big cheese.
Number Notation
The United States does not use the metric system. But this is not the only confusing difference between the USA and Europe.
Interesting Facts About Jeoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer was the first great poet writing in English, whose best-known work is 'The Canterbury Tales'.
Top 10 Rare Books
What makes a book rare and valuable? It all comes down to supply and demand -- and condition. The rarest books in the world are highly sought after by collectors because they're associated with a particular author or a major historical event or era, or simply because they're incredibly old.
Sometimes Dictionaries Are Also Mistaken
Everyone makes mistakes, and lexicographers are no exception. Even now, when most dictionaries are produced by large teams, errors ranging from typos to incorrect definitions can make their way in - after all, dictionaries are big books that take a lot of work to write. Samuel Johnson famously defined ‘pastern’ as the ‘knee’ of a horse (it is in fact a part of the horse’s foot), and when asked why, is said to have replied ‘ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance’.
Top German Words
Both my parents were born in Germany. They moved to Canada and then had me, so I’m about as German as a Canadian can be – which probably explains my weakness for sauerkraut, oom-pa-pa, and marzipan.
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