Welcome to Learned, a short, weekly look at language, education, and everything else under the sun. I’m Joel, amateur linguist and professional slacker. This week, we're collecting our greatest hits.
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Back in the day, we had a thing called the Columbia House Record Club wherein the Columbia House record label would send a catalog to our house every month with a bunch of CDs for sale. (The mechanics of how it worked aren't important; the Wikipedia page has a way-too-in-depth article about it all.) As a high school student, this was the best way for me to get all the latest bands I saw on MTV, but, more importantly, it was a great way to catch up on all the music that came before me. And I did this by getting the greatest hits records.
Maybe not a “greatest hits” picture but definitely the Greatest Of All Time. Photo by Cédric Streit on Unsplash
Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffet, Bob Seger, Bob Marley, Eagles...even bands and artists whose catalogs I would later dive deep into, like Lou Reed, David Bowie, Blondie, and Elvis Costello, had greatest hits records that gave me access to, well, everything. The records spanned the width and breadth of artists' careers and sometimes even included rare gems like live recordings or b-sides before the days when everything a band has ever done is up on YouTube somewhere.
The reason I bring all this up is that issue is the halfway point of Volume 3. Learned has gone through a lot of changes in the previous 129 issues and I thought this might be a good place to take stock. So, here are ten issues, in no particular order, of Learned I'm most proud of, the ones I think best show what it is I've been trying to do here (never mind how distracted I've been for the past few months). Thanks for reading.
Issue 4: Four Panels and a Punchline — The fourth issue is where I felt I had started to really identify the tone and voice of the newsletter. It’s also still a relevant goal and bit of essay for my life and I hope to get back to drawing practice someday soon.
Issue 10: Toki! — The couple months I spent diving deep into the world of artificial languages that culminated in learning the Toki Pona language well enough to engage in a few Twitter conversations in it really pointed the way forward for me as to how this newsletter would evolve into one primarily about words and language.
Issue 22: Whiskey, Bourbon, Scotch — This is the first time I started to really stretch out within the confines of the letter by adding a bit of fiction and a more personal touch to the topic at hand.
Issue 44: Worse Things Happen At Sea — Another issue that foreshadowed the eventual evolution of the newsletter, Issue 44 was a deep dive into the origins of an expression I like to use; the journey was fascinating enough that I decided that there would be an entire year of them starting with Year 2.
Issue 53: Jack of All Trades — Volume Two started a year of delving into the origins of phrases and idioms English speakers use all the time. This was one of the most interesting ones I had come across and still proves its use as a piece of research on a regular basis.
More issues than one night stand, that’s me. Photo by Carles Rabada on Unsplash
Issue 59: This Too Shall Pass — Honestly, I like this issue just because this is one of my favorite idioms to use and learning the story of its origin (in Jewish folklore) was fascinating to me.
Issue 69: Good Grief — Charlie Brown is both my hero and my spiritual avatar. Researching his signature phrase was a lot of fun and gave me and excuse to spend way too much time re-reading old comics.
Issue 101: Easy Come, Easy Go — This issue just came out in March of this year and it already feels like a different era that we are only just beginning to understand. Re-reading it just now reminded me of how intense the beginnings of this pandemic were and how unprepared we all were for what was to come.
Issue 105: ASMR — The first issue in what I called the “no frills, no fat” season, this issue showcases my grand plan for this year (although it has kind of fallen apart on me) and gives some hints as to what I’m planning for next year.
Issue 114: Anthropomorphic Simulation — While it wasn’t the first post of this volume, I feel like this one is the one where I figured out how I was going to publicly react to the pandemic - don’t ignore it, but look for the lighter side of things and try to keep myself and others as sane and safe as possible. I’m still trying.
We’ll be back to a regular issue next week and for many weeks after, I hope. In the meantime…
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Stay safe, stay curious, learn something.
Joel