Website Wednesday

I'm having a lot of trouble getting my font size right in these blogs. While I seem to have options regarding the type of font I want to use: Arial, Courier, etc., like Goldilocks, I have only a few choices with size: small, large, largest. But sometimes Largest is really Papa Bear size and sometimes it's more like Mama Bear. There are some hyperlinks which will take me to Settings and Layouts but I get that dreaded box "Are you sure you want to navigate away from this site?" when I click them and I'm too chicken to say "Yes."

Oh, boy. I just lost my option to change the fonts; that is, that function just disappeared from the top tool bar. What did I do?

OK, I'm going to cut and paste this into Word Perfect and finish it there.

I’m in Word Perfect now, not that you probably care, but if I forget to save this, I’m going to be caring - and screaming.

Talking about formatting brings me to my website pick for this Wednesday:

http://chir.ag/projects/tip-of-my-tongue/

since it’s really about the nitty-gritty of talking and writing.

It’s not a slickly professional web site but it serves a very useful purpose.

It says: Find that word that you've been thinking about all day but just can't seem to remember. You plug in parts of the word you are looking for and the dictionaries do the searching for you. I see this an a boon for crossword addicts or lousy spellers, like me.

I used the Word Meaning function to look up spangled since I was using that on a 6th grade worksheet yesterday. I got the definition of the word but I also got definitions of: aventurine; banner; bespangle; goldstone; Key (Francis Scott) and sunstone; all of which contain “spangle” in their definition.

If you’re adventurous, click Projects along the top and then “Name that Color” where you learn the names of all those color shades the paint store wants to sell you and you get to see the actual color. Ever heard of the color Sinbad?

Or under Projects go to “Prez Tag Cloud” which shows: ....the popularity, frequency, and trends in the usages of words within speeches, official documents, declarations, and letters written by the Presidents of the US between 1776 - 2007 AD.

It’s interesting just reading how this site was prepared. Did you know that the most frequently used word in the 1927 State of the Union address of Calvin Coolidge was “agriculture”? Or that the most frequent word in Harrison’s 1891 State of the Union address was “Indian” but in the next year address it was “import”?

Some people may consider sites like this wonky (and no, I did not find the colloquial meaning for this word as I am using it in Tip of My Tongue) but I think it's sites like this one that make the Internet so fantastic. Someone has an interest and dedication to do the research and then prepare a website to share it with the world.

Go visit. You won’t be disappointed. Oh, and don’t forget to look at his writings.