Organizing Our Marvellous Neighbours:

Carried out my first under-table handoff of a CD-ROM copy of the book to a paying reader.

Version 1.1 coming in a few days, ostensibly.

I appeared on the Radio Canada International program The Link today, but sadly my interview did not make the resulting podcast. So I guess it just beamed its way out into the ether, as radio waves do.

Reports of our “oblivion” are somewhat exaggerated in an article in the Toronto Star. According to an academic from my alma mater, Canadians have a superiority complex over Americans and the Internet exposes all readers to denationalized English.

If there were a rational proposal to replace Canadian English spellings with some other country’s, yes, we would feel superior to Americans and insist on British (even though we actually speak American English). But my empirical data show that, even with exposure to multiple English-language spelling traditions, even “Internet” spelling of Canadian English is indistinguishable from professionally-edited spellings or any other variety.

I’m so accustomed to the pop linguistics of blogs that I had almost forgotten how easily Ph.D. linguists can miss the point.

Busy first week.

• I have an immediate goal of 100 sales and a later goal of 550. I’m at about 55 now – and you all have my thanks. I also ginned up a single-column iPhone version if anybody wants it.
• A few reviews and mentions: Tripping, Adactio (it’s really just for Canadians, Jeremy – but I appreciate it), Cephalogenic.
• An errata page is going up shortly. There are more errors than I’d like, but then again, zero errors (the amount I’d like) are unattainable.
• Track people’s comments via Delicious. Also: MeFi Projects.

I have only barely begun to “market” the book via the mainstream media. In other words, you haven’t read about me in the paper or seen me on TV yet.

Now, what the hell is Oxford University Press doing shitcanning its entire dictionary division? Who the hell is going to write these wonderfully profitable online dictionaries? Old farts in England? I don’t think so.