It's not just me, is it?

There are several news reports this morning about Britain exporting "blood products" at risk of contamination with the prion responsible for vCJD ("Mad Cow"). Am I the only one who, when seeing the phrase "blood products," immediately thinks about this story?

And then there's the quote from the Lewis & Clark expedition: "Ocian in view! Oh! The Joy!" Am I the only one who, on seeing that misspelling, thinks not of the ocean but of Ossian?

Right then. Time for me to get breakfast. Where are my blood Twinkies?

Original English Only!

The Original English Movement

For decades descriptive linguists and professional prescriptivists—technical writers, editors, and English teachers—have been at war. As most linguists know all too well, the prescriptivists say that descriptivism is at best a weak philosophy of usage, and at worst an invitation to grammatical chaos. However, too many prescriptivists maintain what is, to descriptivists, an illogical position: language should not change—or at least not until all the opponents of a particular change are long dead....

Our goal is to bring forth a new body, The Academy of The English Language, whose function is to preside over the correctness of the English Language in the Americas and the British Commonwealth. And by speaking of the English Language, we mean the real, Original English Language—that used by the Anglo-Saxons a thousand years ago to tell the story of Beowulf.

Programmers: In the interests of linguistic purity, please consult the Old English Computer Glossary.

(Both links via the languagehat2 feed.)

Anno mmiv. Todæg is se xxvii dæg þæs monþes þe mon nemneð Septembris, þæt is on ure geþeode haligmonað. Hit is monandæg. Nu is seo xviii tid & iii pricon.

2004. Today is the 27th day of the month that is called Septembris, that is in our tongue September. It is Monday. It is now the 18th hour [after midnight] and 3 points.

Today in Old English