My cousin, a music producer, told me: sure it’s possible to polish a turd. First you bake it, then lacquer it. I reflect on these words as I attempt to language polish the output of Google translate. I wonder what subtle principles of linguistics and aesthetics — principles of which we as sentient language speakers […]

I’m switching a set of papers from Chicago notes-bibliography style with full bibliography to Chicago notes-bibliography style without full bibliography. As any fule no, this will mean expanding the first occurence of the reference item in the notes from shortened to full form (among other things). Since it’s May, and a sunny evening, it’s important […]