Day: January 4, 2012

The Classic Concordance of Cacographic Chaos

I’m rather smitten with this poem today, new to me but apparently one that’s made the rounds for decades. It playfully highlights the maddening inconsistencies of spelling and pronunciation in English, providing a vivid example of why I’m always impressed by and sympathetic to the plight of all my friends (and anyone, for that matter) who can take on English as a second language and thrive. Even as a native speaker, there are things in this that highlight tensions between my American accent and the British around me.

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Type on screen: Choosing and using it well

Ooops, I accidentally skipped December, didn’t I? Well, it was a busy month, but thankfully not as busy as the two prior ones. I was feeling a little burnt out, however, and kept a low profile.

I was travelling and speaking a lot for work, often addressing the subject of using type on the web and other screen-based devices. Here, in case you are so inclined, is a 20-minute talk I gave on the subject in early November at the Future of Web Design conference in New York:

It’s a new year now, however, and I’m feeling refreshed and full of energy, so hopefully there will be more to come soon.