Lance Nathan, doing business as eternally stressed semanticist, posted a wonderful "open letter" on LiveJournal. It begins:
Dear [□ Sir / □ Madam / □ Representative / □ Journalist / □ Idiot],
I know you believe you know a great deal about
[□ linguistics / □ children's literature / □ law / □ psychology / □ other (please specify)]
simply because you
[□ use language / □ read Harry Potter and Goodnight Moon / □ watch Law & Order / □ have a mind],
or because you've read a newspaper article about
[□ the lack of numbers in Pirahã / □ Dumbledore being gay / □ some Supreme Court decision / □ Prozac].
Go read the rest, and the follow-up post too. (Hat tip, The Ridger.)
Posted by Benjamin Zimmer at November 1, 2007 11:49 PM