Mind Inclined

Poe's works, such as "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," are known around the world, but how much do you know about the man behind them? If you want my October Poe-casts to be sent to your email inbox, subscribe to Mind Travel here: ⁠http://eepurl.com/iRSioc You're invited to attend a Zoom lecture at 7 p.m. on October 29 for a free live presentation, "Puzzling Poe: America's Dark Genius." Learn...

You have goals--things you want to do or be. How do you bridge that gap from "wanting" to "doing" or "being"?  That's the focus of this episode. It starts with a SMART goal, precommitment, and time management. I explain these concepts and provide more practical strategies and mindset shifts to make real progress on your goals.

How you express yourself through language involves more science -- and fun -- than you'd expect.

Writing is a kind of one-way conversation. Writers articulate their thoughts, perhaps even pour their hearts out, and then . . . silence. This column is starting to sound like a complaint or a plea for responses, but I can assure you it is not. I enjoy writing, and I am pretty sure I would be doing it even if I were alone on a desert island. Still, sending messages into the void is clearly somethi...

Does this experience sound familiar? You're chattering away about something--regaling your friends with a captivating story, perhaps, or plumbing the depths of the human condition with a like-minded sage--and you can't think of a word to express something.  If you were writing alone in your garret, you could take some time to fill this lexical gap, but your audience is hanging on your ever...

Let's explore the coinage of words, including initialisms, acronyms, and Orwellian inventions. You can read this essay on Substack by clicking here: https://mindinclined.substack.com/p/7dc9ffe6-f634-45b3-8c2c-175720b63a13

"What counts as a word?" It's a fascinating question, one that takes us into the realms of both lexicology (the study of words) and lexicography (the work of dictionary-making). I have noticed over the years that some people--a lot, I suspect--think that words have to be "official," as if they have to undergo some scrutiny, pass a test, earn a stamp of approval from someone...

What's your favorite word? The word at the top of my list of favorites is . . . walkie-talkie. Would you believe that linguists have a term for this kind of word?  We call it a reduplicative, and English has scores of examples: mumbo jumbo, hurdy-gurdy, namby-pamby, mishmash, and many more.  Let's have some fun with reduplicatives!

I like a poet with a sense of humor. Today's winking bard is none other than the brilliant--and wry--John Donne.  Donne belonged to an age when poetry was not always somber and earnest, as it often was with, say, Keats and Poe a few centuries later.  Donne's humor can be seen in some of his best-known poems, including our subject for today,  "The Flea."