Quibbles And Bits: Outlaw Z, Forgiveness

by Kevin Burton     Come and get it kids, quibble and bits, short takes, follow-ups from recent posts, bits of news…..    A day or two after I wrote about the letter Z and its two pronunciations (zed and zee), Meriam-Webster made “zeitgeist” its word of the day.    The dictionary says zeitgeist is “the …

A Way Americans Can Avoid Fascist President

by Silvia Marchetti CNN    While many communities around the world have been wondering what to make of Donald Trump’s presidential re-election, a village on the Italian island of Sardinia has sniffed a potential opportunity.    Like many other places in rural Italy, Ollolai has long been trying to persuade outsiders to move in to revive …

Nebraska Town Divided Over Immigration

by Didi Martinez, Julia Ainsley and  Laura Strickler, NBC News FREMONT, Neb. — Big-city mayors may be complaining about the economic impact of an influx of migrants, but the residents of a small city near Omaha can’t decide how they feel.    Fremont, Nebraska, population 27,000, has three massive meat-processing plants. As young locals leave in …

More Bilingual Americans Than You Think

by Kevin Burton   There was a time when I had multiple dozens of penpals from around the world. More than once I heard this joke:    What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.    What do you call a …

“The Immigrant” Didn’t Fit John Lennon

by Kevin Burton    For about three minutes and fifty seconds a tidy story unfolds from the pen of lyricist Phil Cody and the voice of the great Neil Sedaka.    Attempt to read between the lines though and you have a mess on your hands, especially with Sedaka dedicating the song to ex-Beatle John …