Roget's Thesaurus for the iPhone

I can't find it, and it's driving me crazy.

I don't want a thesaurus in dictionary form. If you've never experienced the joy of browsing a schema-based thesaurus, you really haven't lived.

You don't have to understand the Dewey Decimal system to understand that once you've found the library section on cooking, if you wander in one direction you find your way to hunting books, and past that you'll discover books on horticulture and gardening. The other direction? Kitchen remodeling, home improvement, housekeeping.

See how easy that was? You started looking for one concept and found closely related ones nearby. That's what a real Roget's Thesaurus is like.

For example, pulling from the classic 1911 edition:

Entry #444 contains synonyms for spectator
#445: Optical instruments
#446: Visibility
#447: Invisibility
#448: Appearance (including a cross-reference back to #443, imperfect vision)

And so forth. A dictionary-style thesaurus can never capture the raw power intrinsic to this structure.

Please, someone, anyone? I could write one myself, theoretically, but it's the licensed content that would really make it tick. Content from 1911, while free of copyright, wouldn't be nearly as useful as a modern data set.

Indy Irish Fest 2009

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Sort of, redux

I might have enjoyed this interview on the radio tonight, but I ended up screaming (literally) instead. 36 instances of "sort of" (thanks for an honest transcript, Fresh Air) in less than 24 minutes. And Terry Gross talks nearly half that time, so he was averaging roughly 3 "sort of"s per minute.

Please, if you're going on national TV or radio, please learn to swallow the "sort of".

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Indianapolis

Greek Fest 2009

Sort of inextricably intertwined

I was horrified this morning on WFYI to hear a local piece on an arts luncheon, with someone asserting that the lunch would bring together people who are, in his words, "sort of inextricably intertwined."

Contemplate that phrase for a while. Wrap your brain around it, I dare you.

Sort of inextricably intertwined

I often hear athletes use waffle words; after thoroughly destroying another team: "we sorta came out in the second half and established ourselves," for example. Why the "sorta"?

This, though...this is a semantic nightmare.

Sort of inextricably intertwined

Thus the pernicious effect of "kinda/kind of" or "sorta/sort of" as space fillers as we search for the right words. Don't let this disease infect your speech. Better to use "um" and sound inept than use "sort of" and risk sounding like an idiot.

On the other hand, perhaps this is the way to achieve immortality: many of us will remember his words far longer than had he not used "sort of".