#helen Zaltzman

[inwhiches]

Episode 196: Word Play 6: Beeing —

"in which I, Helen Zaltzman, enter the apiary of language.”

https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/beeing

[telomirage]

listening to the allusionist episodes about the scripps national spelling bee and getting very emotional, AMA

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

You may already know this, but if you've ever wondered what Andy Zaltzman's dream menu would be, he's the latest guest on Off Menu. I don't recall him talking too much about food (or really, anything that's not cricket ;) ) so I for one am really curious what his picks will be. He's definitely been in enough commentator's boxes that it should be an interesting listen!

(Side note: they called him in for one of their Christmas special episodes, which had me laughing for a whole minute. He's talked so many times about how he's 'a bad Jew, and an even worse Christian', I wonder how long it'll take to come up during their chat! Poor Andy, look at him in the episode cover, he does Not look too pleased.)

Thanks for this, I'd been debating whether to listen to that Off Menu episode and I think this message has pushed me into deciding to do it. I've only heard a few episodes of Off Menu before - I have a weird aversion to food-based entertainment, which is partly because of some triggers I have that are left over from my years of cutting weight as a competitive athlete, but to be honest, I also just don't find food a particularly interesting topic of conversation. I think I probably spend less time thinking about food than most people do. I hugely enjoying going through The Collected Works of Peacock and Gamble this year, but food and ghosts are two things that I just don't give a fuck about and don't understand why there are so many entertainment programs based on them, so I shall not follow either to future podcasts.

However. I say all that to explain how deep my obsession with Andy Zaltzman goes when I say I shall make an exception for this episode, of course I want to know what Andy Zaltzman eats for lunch. Of course I do. And of course I want to hear him awkwardly make jokes about how terrible he is at being Jewish, particularly around Christmas time.

I will bet you any money that he works in the story about how one year, his sister (esteemed podcaster Helen Zaltzman) bought him a whole pig as a Christmas present, and getting a Jewish person 1) a pig, and 2) a Christmas present would be a hate crime in any other situation. This story was an old favourite of Andy's (that also became a Daniel Kitson stand-up routine, the highest honour a story can have) that I've not heard him tell in a while, but surely he'd bring it out for a show that's about both food and Christmas. And then will get into how he had a leg of pork instead of a wedding cake when he got married. All the hits, I'm hoping for.

[honshew]

top 3 moments of today, august 26th, 2023

i made an ugly but still tasty french omelette for breakfast. i've been trying to get better at it since i saw someone make it on a show. i'm still very bad at it

i have a cat friend in the neighborhood that i always meet in the same spot on my daily walks around 7p, just before sunset. it runs to me when i call and will demand i pet it aka bumping its head into my hand before it gets its fill and continues about its day. today, it joined me for a bit of my walk and i watched it catch a grasshopper

i listened to the podcast the allusionist, hosted by linguist helen zaltzman, and learned about william sharpe/fiona mccleod and their very supportive ally and wife elizabeth

bonus

[inthefallofasparrow]

Imaginary Advice | 100th Episode

(feat. Avery Trufelman, Eric Molinsky, Helen Zaltzman, Joe Dunthorne & Joseph Fink)

[cantlit]

123 - Can't Lit - Triple Treat Book Launch!

Welcome to the chaos of a book launch! Are all book launches like this? I hope so! The Triple Treat Book Launch took place on Sunday April 28th at beloved R&B Brewing. Jen Sookfong Lee was the host and books by Dina Del Bucchia (You're Gonna Love This), Daniel Zomparelli (Jump Scare) and Andrea Warner (The Time of My Life) were launched and feted and were sold by the amazing Iron Dog Books!  Listen to Cynara Geissler read from Andrea's book while she recovers from surgery. Dina and Daniel read from their new books and also host three rounds of trivia: Generally Vaguely Dirty Dancing, Horror Movie Trivia, and TV Trivia. And Dina reads a poem from her book that tells you which SNL cast member you are! And that's not all, A Giant Woman (Cynara Geissler and Hannah McGregor) performs with The Jewel Tones (Martin Austwick and Helen Zaltzman). And we are treated to a performance by The Established, Shanda Leer! A wonderful night. A fun time. All of this was recorded by our wonderful sound tech, Sean Cranbury.

Check out our latest episode!

[lefthandedbastard]

Things that come with being a nerd and also a lesbian: having a little crush on helen zaltzman

[thesnadger]

achromaticschematic: Any recommendations for a first time read?

The Analboros: A Collection of Recursive Butt-Pounding Tales is a good introduction! It collects seven stories, starting with Pounded in the Butt by my Own Butt and going to sequel after sequel, each getting one level deeper of meta and surreal.

If audio media works for you, I also heartily recommend Pounded in the Butt By My Own Podcast, where some awesome podcast VAs read his stories out loud. A few of my personal favorites:

Reamed By My Reaction To The Title Of This Book with Symphony Sanders

Slammed In The Butt By My Handsome Laundry Detergent Pod with Justin McElroy

My Butt Is Comforted By The Realization That I’m Okay And Everything Will Be Alright with Dearest Scooter

Monday Pounds Me In The Butt with Helen Zaltzman

Living Inside My Own Butt For Eight Years, Starting A Business And Turning A Profit Through Common Sense Reinvestment And Strategic Targeted Marketing with James Urbaniak

If audio doesn't work for you, all of these are also available as ebooks on his website. Note that most Chuck Tingle "books" are quite short, around 11 pages. His ebooks also come bundled with a surprise second book (that's usually somewhat related in content) for free!

If you don't want explicit sex scenes (and everything mentioned so far contains at least one) he also has a whole section of "No Sex Tinglers" on his website. I particularly recommend Absolutely No Thoughts Of Pounding During My Fun Day With This Kind T-Rex Because I'm Aromantic And Asexual And That's A Wonderfully Valid Way Of Proving Love Is Real, which contains another Ace-positive Tingler (Not Pounded in the Butt By Anything And That's Okay) bundled with it.

Really though, just scrolling through the ebook section and picking a title that seems interesting/funny to you is a thoroughly valid approach.

I perform two public services in this world. I make moderately short people feel tall, and I evangelize to people who only know Chuck Tingle as an internet meme that his work is unironically good.

[wt-nv-quotes]

This episode is about Michigan, or is it Mitchigan, or Minstacan. No two people have ever agreed how to pronounce the word. And if you’ve never heard of Menschiten, you’re not alone. It’s widely considered the least recognizable state in America.

[isagrimorie]

I just listened to the Allusionist podcast and the recent episode is about a woman, Lauren Marks, who had a stroke while singing Total Eclipse of the Heart -- and the stroke apparently affected her language centers.

She lost the ability to form contexts, internal dialogue and could only speak 40 words at a time.

Lauren is now in better form than when she had a stroke but she relayed how, for her, everything felt peaceful on her end because she didn't know how much the stroke affected her.

But the fascinating thing about the whole thing is, how because she lost her memory for words, she also lost the memories of some of her long term relationships. Lauren explained how much of our relationship with people are about the shared history of call and response, in jokes, arguments, etc., This impacted on some of her relationships, especially her off and on again relationship with a boyfriend. They'd been together for five years but she has no memory of him, she remembered other people but not him.

Eventually, they broke-up and after a few years, met another man and is now married to him with two kids.

It's just really fascinating because before listening to this podcast, I didn't realize how much language, or any form of communication is tied so closely to our memories. And, how, if it's messed with or gone, sometimes our personal histories and relationship can also be affected.

Just wanted to share it here.

[inwhiches]

Episode 192: Word Play part 2 —

"in which I, Helen Zaltzman, am checkmated by language.”

https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/wordplay2

[allthingslinguistic]

I’m interviewed on the latest episode of The Allusionist podcast with Helen Zaltzman! Description: 

I don’t know exactly when or where, but at some point in the past few years, I stopped putting punctuation at the end of sentences. Why? The internet made me do it 

Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch, cohost of Lingthusiasm podcast and the author of the new book Because Internet, explains how the internet changes the rules of language.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

- ‘I invented the iPhone’s autocorrect. Sorry about that, and you’re welcome.’ - Read Gretchen’s columns for WIRED about internet language. - Lingthuisiasm recently did a video episode all about why we gesture when we talk, and in a few days’ time they’ll release a new (audio) episode about gesture in linguistics, so keep an eye on your podcast feed and lingthusiasm.com for that. - The history of the full stop (AKA period). - ^ In fact the English Project spent a year going into the history of punctuation - links to all their different posts are at the bottom of this page. - The transcript of this episode is at theallusionist.org/new-rules.

Listen to the episode here or in your favourite podcast app. 

[tyrograph]

GUYS.

Guysguysguys.

There is a demon responsible for copying errors, typos, and gossip! Like, historically.

His name is Titivillus.

I cannot stop thinking about if this was one of Crowley's guises, or a minion, or a colleague/competitor ...

He was blamed for the Wicked Bible ("Thou shalt commit adultery") which is real and not made up by Sir Terry! There are little rhymey prayers to ward him off!

Worst yet he collects all your errors as you make them and then they are all waiting for you in Hell!

Fan Art pleeeeeeeez! And maybe Fics too!

[thoughtportal]

The brilliant and dazzling Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist podcast and person who technically for a living researches the origins of language and thus is an etymologist, visits Alie's apartment to chat about various word origins,  gender in language, the Bible a.k.aThe Oxford English Dictionary, origins of the filthiest slang, emoji decoding, mediocrity, step parents, babies wearing glasses, Greek kimonos, the romance of languages and the fundamental truth that languages is  always changing whether you want it to or not. Also tomatoes, pliable boobs, avocados, and fish trails.  

[girl-with-no-pearl-earring]

Ugh would you stop it with the linguistic elitism? There is no correct way, if Shakespeare heard any one of us now he would laugh his drunk ass off and cast us as the comic relief.

british podcasts be like "rate and review us on iChunes"

[carla545]

For Veronica Mars fans, this is a fantastic new podcast! So well done and chockfull of fun information. Feels like you’re experiencing the show from the beginning.