Is typing two spaces after a period “totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong?” Also, is the language of the movie True Grit historically accurate? Also, shut your pie-hole, Southern grammar, oh my Lady Gaga, and a little town called...
Multiple modals, as in the phrase “I thought y’all may would have some more of them,” have their own logic and are well understood by many in the American South. The Database of Multiple Modals compiled by Paul Reed and Michael Montgomery is here...
split bit n.— Note: “Bit” is well-established slang meaning “prison term.” «Under the state laws that govern sentencing, grand larceny is considered a non-violent crime, and it carries no mandatory minimum prison or jail sentence. In similar cases...
leather and feather epic n.— «According to Montgomery, the joke in the native community is that every movie that comes out about Native Americans features roles that are, well, rather predictable. In other words, they might as well be pulled from a...
blue-state tax n.— «Democratic leaders in Congress are vowing to make the alternative minimum tax a centerpiece of next year’s budget debate, saying the levy threatens to unfairly increase tax bills for millions of middle-class families by the end...
pimp v.— «Some Black voices, however, have joined the anti-immigrant backlash. Among them is Mary Mitchell, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, who denounced Arellano’s comparison of her struggle to that of Rosa Parks, who defied segregation in...

