Pondering which native shrub (one of the viburnums?) will be the best replacement for the stupidly unruly invasive bush honeysuckle we have. Tall, good screen, flowers...

The 2.75-year-old, singing loudly to himself at bedtime: Rock-a-bye baby, don't you sleep! Rock-a-bye baby! Don't! You! Sleep!

Ah, the sounds of spring: birds singing, mason bees thwacking into inanimate objects...

Ugh. My poster and my student's poster are at the same time now

haven't been asked to review a paper in a while so if you're an editor looking for a psycholinguist who works on discourse...👀

An orange tabby-cat with white at the tip of her tail sleeps curled up on a blue bedspread.

Wait how did you get a picture of my cat?

I'm just a PI, standing in front of his lab, asking them once again to please label things more specifically than "Abstract.docx" or "Grant.docx"

I feel this way about arriving at my office, which some building designer decided needed a clear, floor-length window to the hall. "Don't mind me, colleagues and students, I'm not actually stripping, I'm just taking off rain pants."

Today is the first day of Ramadan, the first day of Adar, Lunar New Year and Mardi Gras.

This means that for one reason or another, the majority of humans on the planet have a reason to eat fried food, and that is beautiful.

Pull titles from old Charle Brown comics, like they do for R versions

this is my exact age:

This is important and I’ll add that in academia, most of us reach this position over the course of decades, which makes it hard to realize it’s happening. Professors are so so bad at seeing the power dynamics they’re in the middle of

Those bones!

5 classes I took in college:

Language & Mind
History of Islamic Civilization
Old Church Slavonic
Astronomy
Novels! Modern Fiction

I've been a faculty member in #Linguistics at a high-profile US university for for over a decade now. Most years I've been involved in graduate admissions. As of this year I'm the Graduate Chair for my department. I thought it might be helpful to share some advice for grad applicants...

This is fascinating to me. Hail for me is the stuff summer thunderstorms sometimes produce, tiny ice pellets are definitely sleet even (especially?) if they bounce when they hit, and I don't think I have a name for falling slush.

Mandarin Wok in Champaign, IL, a grad school staple. So sad when I heard they closed!

Spicy fish 350, dry spicy green beans, and that delicious eggplant dish whose name I can't remember. With tea on tap: your choice of green or sweetened chrysanthemum.

The Best Carry-On Luggage After 10 years of airport dashes and overhead-compartment stashes, the Travelpro Platinum Elite is still the suitcase we want to carry.

I splurged on a TravelPro based on Wirecutter reviews a couple years ago, and I adore it. Looks like the bag I got is still their top rec.

www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...

the hardest part about studying how kids learn language is that they know but won’t tell us

A Mourning Dove on a snow-dusted branch, all puffed up and still sleepy

Happy New Year!

First bird of 2026 is a Mourning Dove all puffed up on a snow-dusted branch outside my in-laws house 🩶

That sounds exactly like our recipe (which I adore), except for the potatoes. Intriguing. Just mixed in?

I've been doing just once per week Pilates class at the campus gym, and it's embarrassing how much it seems to be helping my off and on hip pain.

Disappointed but unsurprised to see both @kaine.senate.gov and @markwarner.bsky.social on this list.

I have yet to sit a vote out because I don't like the Dem candidate, but I this is the issue that will do it. I won't vote for someone who is willing to throw trans people under the bus.

Submit 2025 Words-of-the-Year Nominations The American Dialect Society’s popular 2025 words-of-the-year vote will be held during the society’s 2026 annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Nominations will be taken Thursday, January 8, 2026…

did you know: the American Dialect Society is the oldest "word of the year" event in the States, and the words are chosen by several hundred linguists who get raucous in a big meeting room in January. you can submit nominations for us to consider!

great activity for classrooms!

Our 2yo likes asking about the pictures but has limited patience for readaloud so far (not surprising, we'll get there!)

We love this book! We read it aloud together, pre-kid, and now quote it regularly

Ambiguous for whom? The Cranberries - Empty

A few weeks ago, I went to the Psychonomics conference in Denver. During the conference, I heard a researcher saying "bilinguals have a creativity disadvantage." I raised my questions after their talk, but I also wrote a letter to talk about my emotions.
open.substack.com/pub/letterst...

So glad they're home safe! What a miserable adventure.

I mean, the alternative in my family is Russia, so...