Mar 11
When I received an e-mail from a student of Linguistic Anthropology asking for help with a research paper, my first reaction was: Where was that class when I was in school? My second reaction was: Boy, have you come to…
Florida’s legislative session began last week and some rather odd tax exemptions are now under review including: nets used by commercial fisheries; generators used on poultry farms; fuel used to heat the huge warehouses in which chickens raised for meat…
Mar 9
If the happy meat movement has done anything in addition to making needless killing acceptable, it has glorified the “small, local farm.” Deb Durant of Invisible Voices volunteers weekly at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Maryland, where many of the…
Mar 7
I knew that SHARK had recently been victorious against the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), which falsely claimed copyright infringement and had YouTube disable the SHARK account. What I didn’t know what the legal details, which Simon Owens directed me…
Mar 6
I want to clarify the use of the OED, and I’ll simply tell you what they say: The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed…
Mar 5
Just when you thought I was going to stop talking about vegetarianism and veganism . . . You might want to sit down for this one. Vegetarian, the noun. 1. a. One who lives wholly or principally upon vegetable foods;…
Mar 4
The irony in this one is rich. The original definition of compassion, which arrived on the scene in 1340, was: “Suffering together with another, participation in suffering; fellow-feeling, sympathy.” And the secondary definition doesn’t get much better: “The feeling or…
Mar 3
I’ll write about “compassion” and the OED tomorrow because my level of confusion at something I saw in a press release by PCRM is something I cannot hold back. It’s a matter of language, and here it is (and thanks…
Mar 2
This one’s for Justin, who was curious about the history of “humane” via the Oxford English Dictionary. The page isn’t long so I can paste the entire thing, references and all. If you just read the references chronologically, without the…
Feb 28
In the event you thought school lunches were about feeding kids nutritious food. A lot has changed since I was in school. We had no soda or snack machines. And how about having to rename “Adult Onset Diabetes”? It boggles…
Feb 27
Continuing to get my money’s worth, today the Oxford English Dictionary and I bring you “force.” Force arrives on the scene in 1300, and has many uses, so I’ll give examples only when I think the definition needs some back-up….
I had many requests for “sentient,” which I wrote about in “The Origin of ‘Sentient'” in December of 2007. Though “violence” was an interesting read, I prefer “violent.” Here are some highlights: A. adj. I. 1. Of things: Having some…
Feb 25
By popular request, here are some highlights of what the OED says about violence as a noun: 1. a. The exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to, persons or property; action or conduct…
Feb 24
Bea, whom I think researches animal matters all day long (when not tending to the creatures she cares for), sent me a link to an essay called “If you love something, you don’t kill it” by Jim Sinclair, who is…
Feb 23
I wrote a guest post about diabetes in “pets” at Paw Talk called “Lessons Learned” which was published over the weekend. I think it’s important to reach out to the pet people, as many have already demonstrated their desire to…
Linen Theme by The Theme Foundry
Copyright © 2025 Mary Martin, PhD. All rights reserved.