Category Archives: Language

What’s Buggane You?

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Nathan

The Buggane is a monster in the folklore of the Isle of Man, which I suppose makes it a Manxome foe, like the Jabberwock. As an American, the main thing I know about the place is the tailless cats. Since … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, British, Christianity, Etymology, Fairy Tales, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Religion | Tagged bogeyman, boggarts, bugganes, chicken rock, fairies, fionn mac cumhaill, giants, greeba mountain, isle of man, kitterland, pookas, st. trinian's church | Leave a comment

Orc My World

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Nathan

This past weekend, Orcs were trending on Twitter, based on a tweet about how a description of them in Dungeons & Dragons was pretty racist. (Full disclosure: I haven’t played D&D, although I’ve come across it quite a bit in … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Biology, Christianity, Ethnicity, Fairy Tales, Focus on the Foes, Games, History, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Norse, Prejudice, Religion, Science, Star Trek | Tagged beowulf, dungeons and dragons, dwarves, elves, fantasy, gnolls, goblins, klingons, morality, ogres, orcs, racism, scientific racism, trolls | Leave a comment

Increase Your Word Power

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Nathan

There’s an article in the newest Baum Bugle, which isn’t yet available in physical form, about the magic word from The Magic of Oz, discussed in the context of magic words in the series and other fiction. The writer, Dennis … Continue reading →

Posted in Characters, Fairy Tales, L. Frank Baum, Language, Magic, Magic Items, Nursery Rhymes, Oz, Oz Authors, Ruth Plumly Thompson | Tagged captain fyter, dennis wilson wise, dorothy gale, johnny dooit, magic belt, mombi, mudge, nome king, pirates in oz, polychrome, powder of life, pyrzqxgl or how to do things with magic words, shaggy man, the baum bugle, the believing child, the cowardly lion of oz, the gnome king of oz, the lost king of oz, the magic of oz, the marvelous land of oz, the patchwork girl of oz, the road to oz, the tin woodman of oz, the wonderful wizard of oz, tik-tok of oz, tin woodman, winged monkeys, witches, wizard of oz, wumbo, zenna henderson | Leave a comment

Feeding the Meter

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Nathan

It seems like Americans really hate the metric system. Metric really makes more sense in a lot of ways, being based on decimal measurements. On the other hand, it is true that we get a general sense of what feet, … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, History, Language, Mathematics, Science | Tagged agriculture, anders celsius, british imperial system, chains, dante gabriel fahrenheit, edmund gunter, feet, furlongs, grams, hogsheads, jean-pierre christin, kelvins, liters, measurement, meters, metric system, miles, oxen, paces, pounds, queen elizabeth i, rods, temperature, william thomson | Leave a comment

Millions Upon Millions

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Nathan

I was reminded recently of how I used to like to look at the Table of Numbers in the dictionary, which probably sounds boring. I was fascinated by all the names for really large numbers, quadrillions, quintillions, and all that. … Continue reading →

Posted in Language, Mathematics, Television | Tagged avogadro's number, edward kasner, googol, googolplex, numbers, scientific notation | 1 Comment

No Talking, Just Animals

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Nathan

At the most recent OzCon International, I was on a panel about animals in Oz, discussing, among other things, whether they have the same rights as humans. It went off track a few times, but some interesting topics came up. … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Characters, Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Gina Wickwar, L. Frank Baum, Language, Magic, Magic Items, Monsters, Oz, Oz Authors, Ruth Plumly Thompson | Tagged baffleburg, bilbil, billina, combinoceros, dogs, donkeys, emerald city, ev, hank the mule, horses, immortality, ix, jack pumpkinhead of oz, kabumpo, king randywell, lions, mombi, ojo in oz, ozcon international, ozma of oz, peter brown, pita the sand witch, queen zixi of ix, realbad, rinkitink in oz, ruffles, samandra, snip, snoctorotomus, tazzywaller, the cowardly lion of oz, the emerald city of oz, the gnome king of oz, the lost king of oz, the purple prince of oz, the rundelstone of oz, the silver princess in oz, the yellow knight of oz, tik-tok of oz, toto of oz, wizard of oz | Leave a comment

A Portable Port of a Prequel

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Nathan

I finished the Game Boy Color version of Dragon Warrior III last week, so I might as well say a bit about it. You probably already know this, but the series was always Dragon Quest in Japan, but became Dragon … Continue reading →

Posted in Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Language, Magic, Names, Video Games | Tagged alefgard, dragon quest iii, dragon warrior, dragon warrior iii, erdrick, game boy, game boy color, king lars, king lorik, loto, nintendo, nintendo entertainment system, nostalgia, tantegel castle, wynn, yukinov | Leave a comment

Glutton for Punnishness

Posted on August 7, 2019 by Nathan

Something I’ve looked at before is the nature of puns in the Oz series, and how they can serve different purposes. Some are purposely made by the characters, some are asides, and others are just kind of part of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Characters, Humor, John R. Neill, L. Frank Baum, Language, Oz, Oz Authors, Ruth Plumly Thompson | Tagged bunbury, jack pumpkinhead, ozcon international, ozlection, patchwork girl, paul dana, professor wogglebug, puns, sawhorse, scarecrow, spoolicle, the emerald city of oz, the marvelous land of oz, the royal book of oz, the runaway in oz, the woggle-bug book, the wonder city oz, utensia, wizard of oz | Leave a comment

Weasels on the Wind

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Nathan

Another mythical Japanese creature, or yokai, that came up in the Pokémon videos I talked about last week is the kamaitachi, the probable inspiration for the Sneasel. The name kamaitachi literally means “sickle weasel,” and that’s basically what they are, … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Chinese, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Humor, Japanese, Language, Monsters, Mythology, Pokémon, Video Games | Tagged cyclown, demons, four fiends, kamaitachi, quiongqi, razor wind, si xiong, sickles, sneasel, weasels, yokai | Leave a comment

Birds of a Feather (and a Few Without)

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Nathan

I don’t think I’ve ever really written specifically about the birds in the Oz series, and there are quite a few of them. When Dorothy first arrives in Oz, she sees “birds with rare and brilliant plumage” in the Munchkin … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Arabian, Characters, Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Humor, John R. Neill, L. Frank Baum, Language, Marcus Mebes, Monsters, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Poetry, Rachel Cosgrove Payes, Ruth Plumly Thompson | Tagged balloon bird, balloon island, banana bird, barrel birds, birds, birds of paradise, bob up, bobolinks, captain salt, captain salt in oz, chapter three, chickens, cowardly lion, crows, dorothy and the wizard in oz, ducks, flittermouse, foolish owl, garden of eden, gluckbird, gooch, grand mo-gull, gulls, hummingbirds, hurrah birds, hurrah's nest, jack pumpkinhead of oz, jalapomp, kabumpo, kabumpo in oz, lake orizon, lonesome duck, lucky bucky in oz, nickadoodle, notta bit more, orks, owls, oziana, patch, peli-cans, percy vere, peter brown, pirates in oz, policeman bluejay, reedbirds, rocs, roger the read bird, russet meagle, scissor bird, skyle of un, snif the iffin, stork scissors, storks, the cowardly lion of oz, the curious cruise of captain santa, the giant horse of oz, the little gingerbread man, the lost king of oz, the royal explorers of oz, the scalawagons of oz, the scarecrow of oz, the wicked witch of oz, the wonderful wizard of oz, zazagooch | 1 Comment

Category Archives: Language

What’s Buggane You?

Orc My World

Increase Your Word Power

Feeding the Meter

Millions Upon Millions

No Talking, Just Animals

A Portable Port of a Prequel

Glutton for Punnishness

Weasels on the Wind

Birds of a Feather (and a Few Without)

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