午夜福利1000集合

How do you begin to sort through the more than 3,500,000 place names found in the US? In Erin McKean鈥檚 Verbatim (Pimlico, 拢12.50) 鈥� the questions are almost more interesting than the answers in these essays from the eponymous language quarterly. Richard Lederer鈥檚 鈥淭he world according to student bloopers鈥� is a must: its trail of the misheard, the misunderstood and the mistaken winds from ancient Egyptians in 鈥渄essert cultivated by irritation鈥� to the 鈥渃ure for rabbis鈥� attributed to Pasteur. Dotted throughout the book are ambiguous scraps of writing. 鈥淭he new British Library 鈥� sitting comfortably on enlarged piles鈥� was spotted in New Scientist by a reader back in 1986.