What the heck is a mountweazel?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been looking through a 2025 book by Martha Barnette titled Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland. A mountweazel is a phony entry put into a reference book in order to catch plagiarists. On page 293 Martha says:

 

“Such copyright traps aren’t limited to dictionaries and encyclopedias. Cartographers have been known to insert nonexistent features such as so-called trap streets and paper towns in their maps to catch anyone stealing their work.

 

The word mountweazel derives from a bogus entry in the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia. The entry describes Lillian Mountweazel, supposedly a promising young photographer from Bangs, Ohio, who met an untimely end. Clearly someone had fun writing it:

 

‘Mountweasel, Lillian Virginia, 1942-73, American photographer, b. Bangs, Ohio, Turning from fountain design to photography in 1963, Mountweazel produced her celebrated portraits of the South Sierra Miwok in 1964. She was awarded government grants to make a series of photo-essays of unusual subject matter, including New York City buses, the cemeteries of Paris, and rural American mailboxes. The last group was exhibited extensively abroad and published as Flags Up! (1972). Mountweazel died at 31 in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine.’ “

 

When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, I noticed that the Gulf Oil map of the city contained a trap street in Schenley Park – a bogus connection between Schenley Drive and West Circuit Road.

 

And when I was an undergrad at Carnegie Mellon University the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity printed and sold the student directory. Anyone who tried to use that publication for a mailing list got a cease-and-desist letter from the attorney for Alpha Phi Omega. A friend of mine told me that one mountweazel used his actual home address along with the fictitious name Wadza Duckworth (What’s a duck worth?). Another mountwezel was a phony address for a real person in what now is Wean Hall. It was a room number for the telephone equipment closet in the back of another room.

 

The mountain cartoon was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.

 

 

Public Speaking Pointers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One common type of advice for speakers is to give them pointers on what to do. The other type of advice to discuss mistakes, and how to avoid them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a long, excellent article by Paul N. Edwards from October 2014 titled How to Give an Academic Talk, v5.2. It is a 14-page pdf which descended from a 5-page pdf article from 2001 titled How to Give an Academic Talk: Changing the Culture of Public Speaking in the Humanities. He has a table with worse or better rules of thumb, as shown above. There also are six gray boxes with advice on:

 

Preparing Your Talk

About Vocal Technique

About Presentation Software

About Timing

Handling Questions

Murphy’s Law applies directly to you:

  plan for disaster

 

And there is a 7-page pdf article by Christine Blome, Hanno Sondermann, and Matthias Augustin in the GMS Journal for Medical Education on February 15, 2017 titled Accepted standards on how to give a Medical Research Presentation: a systematic review of expert opinion papers. They analyzed 91 articles! Their thirty recommendations and their percentages (shown in their Table 1 and greater than 20%) are to:

 

 1] Keep your slides simple - 62.6%

 2] Know your audience - 52.7%

 3] Make eye contact - 46.2%

 4] Do not read the talk from slides or a manuscript - 44.0%

 5] Rehearse the presentation - 44.0% [also see #11]

 6] Limit the number of lines per slide - 42.9%

 7] Slides should be readable - 42.9%

 8] Stick to the allotted time - 40.7%

 9] Time the presentation beforehand - 38.5%

10] Use simple tables and graphs - 34.1%

11] Rehearse in front of other persons - 33.0% [also see #5]

12] Know your topic ‘like the back of your hand’ - 31.9%

13] Vary your voice - 29.7%

14] Develop an objective when preparing the presentation - 28.6%

15] Limit the number of words per line - 28.6%

16] Choose a light background - 28.6% [also see #20]

17] Do not use too many slides - 27.5%

18] Test all equipment - 27.5%

19] Use animations carefully - 27.5%

20] Choose a dark background - 26.4% [also see #16]

21] Keep the presentation clear and simple (delivery) - 26.4%

22] Summarize at the end of the presentation - 26.4%

23] Do not speak too fast - 24.2%

24] Put phrases, not sentences, on slides - 24.2%

25] Be logical - 23.1%

26] Face the audience - 23.1%

27] Be enthusiastic - 20.9%

28] Be prepared for questions - 20.9%

29] Create visuals with a consistent design - 20.9%

30] Use contrasting colors - 20.9%

 

 

What’s an eggcorn?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Oxford English Dictionary say that an eggcorn, which first appeared in 2003, is:

 

“An alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements as a similar-sounding word.”

 

And the Wikipedia page for it says that:

 

“An eggcorn is the alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase that is plausible when used in the same context. Thus an eggcorn is an unexpectedly fitting or creative malapropism.” 

 

There is an article by Merrill Perlman at the Columbia Journalism Review on December 11, 2019 titled ‘Eggcorns,’ and other incorrect homophones. He noted that the eggcorn ‘another thing coming’ had replaced the original ‘another think coming, and the eggcorn ‘hone in’ replaced ‘home in.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another article at The Drum on November 20, 2025 is titled This clever Specsavers campaign tackled hearing loss stigma. They came up with a 7-page pdf article titled The Misheard Manifesto, which has the ten eggcorns shown above in a table.

 

My eggcorn was assembled from an egg and corn at OpenclipArt. I also got an acorn from there.

 

 

Displaying risks from vaccines and other dangers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting article from Edzard Ernst on July 16, 2025 titled Yes, vaccination risks are real – but how do they compare with other dangers? In order to show the range from the tiny one in a hundred million for the MMR vaccine to one in 1,100 for drowning (and up to one) we need to use a chart with a logarithmic scale - as is shown above. I had discussed risk in a post on November 12, 2024 titled I am not going to throw out my black plastic spatulas.

 

Also, back on January 13, 2010 I had blogged about How thin is “extremely thin”? and used a table with a powers of ten for comparing thicknesses over a range in centimeters from one to one in ten to the minus eighth power.

 

8 presentation mistakes: how to avoid them and fix them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful post by Naba Ahmed at the Prezi Blog on October 15, 2025 mistitled 8 presentation mistake: how to avoid them and fix them. Those mistakes are:

 

1]  Don’t read directly from your slides.

2]  Avoid overwhelming slides with text.

3]  Create a clear visual flow.

4]  Give your presentation a solid structure.

5]  Pace your speaking.

6]  Use confident body language.

7]  Learn to read audience cues.

8]  Don’t underprepare.

 

Regarding her first point, back on June 10, 2015 I blogged about Don’t annoy us by reading your PowerPoint slides.

 

The article also has advice on How to design slides that connect:

 

Guide the eye with visual hierarchy.

Use color and contrast with purpose.

Choose your fonts wisely.

Select powerful, relevant images.

Balance your visuals and text.

 

I blogged about balancing visuals and text in a post on February 19, 2014 titled Assertion-Evidence PowerPoint slides are a visual alternative to bullet point lists.

 

And the article has sections on how to Master Audience Engagement and to Perfect Your Delivery.

 

A star with eight points was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.

 

The Idaho Freedom Foundation made a thoughtless proposal to completely eliminate the Idaho Commission for Libraries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Brett Farruggia at the Idaho Freedom Foundation on November 21, 2025 titled Ending Bureaucratic Excess in Idaho. It also was posted on November 22, 2025 at the Gem State Patriot News blog. It has a totally  thoughtless proposal – to completely eliminate the Idaho Commission for Libraries:

 

“Further savings can come from eliminating unconstitutional agencies that promote DEI ideology such as the Hispanic Commission ($557,283) and the Library Commission ($6,947,300).”

 

Back on September 1, 2025 the Idaho Freedom Foundation had an article titled Public Recommendations to Idaho’s DOGE Task Force to Increase Government Efficiency which listed the Idaho Commission for Libraries at #5 under recommended Agency Eliminations, but left off the DEI claim.

 

The Idaho Commission for Libraries is responsible for Libraries Linking Idaho (LiLI) which has databases with magazines and newspapers for public libraries in the state. It’s our public utility for information - a critical set of research tools for keeping the public informed. Back on February 23, 2020 I blogged about Finding speech topics and doing research. LiLI databases include, among others these 26 from EBSCOhost:

 

Academic Search Premier

Business Source Premier

Computer Source

Consumer Health Complete

ERIC – Educational Resource Information Center

GreenFILE

Health Source: Consumer Edition

Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition

History Reference Source

Legal Collection

Literary Reference Source

MAS Ultra (for high school students)

MasterFILE Premier

MEDLINE

Middle Search Plus (for middle school students)

Military and Government Collection

Newspaper Source Plus

Primary Search (for elementary school students)

Professional Development Collection

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Publication Finder

Religion and Philosophy Collection

Small Business Source

Teacher Reference Center

TOPICsearch

Vocational and Career Collection

 

Based on a state population of 2,032,120 that expenditure ($6,947,300) is only $3.42 per person – and a tiny part of the overall budget for Idaho.

 

Mr. Farruggia has the combination of arrogance and incompetence I have come to expect from the Idaho Freedom Foundation. I suspect he does not know much about what vital services the Commission for Libraries provides.

 

My cartoon was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.  

 

 

If you only have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Savage Chickens cartoon for November 18, 2025 by Doug Savage is titled The Amazing Hammer and is shown above. It illustrates a proverb Wikipedia terms the Law of the instrument. Some web sites attribute versions of it to Mark Twain:

 

Goodreads - “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

 

AZ Quotes – “If your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.”

 

Quotefancy - “To someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

 

At Quote Investigator on May 8, 2014 Garson O’Toole discussed it in an article titled Quote Origin: If Your Only Tool Is A Hammer Then Every Problem Looks Like a Nail. He found no evidence for Mark Twain, and rather found a 1962 version by Abraham Kaplan:

 

“Give a boy a hammer and everything he meets has to be pounded.”

 

There also are a 1964 version by Abraham Maslow:

 

“Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.”

 

and another 1966 version:

 

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

 

Update November 23, 2025

 

Adam Savage’s 2019 memoir Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life is what you make it discusses the converse. In Chapter 12 Hammers, Blades, and Scissors, on pages 266 and 267 he writes about his friend, Mark Buck:

 

“He was a man with an aversion for fools and a love of tools. If he walked by your workbench and he saw you looking too long for something in your toolbox, he’d instruct you in an almost solemn tone, like a sifu, ‘Remember, in every tool, there is a hammer.’ What he meant was that every tool can be used for a purpose for which it wasn’t intended, including the most basic of operations, like hammering. He also meant that until you learn to see what tools can do beyond their stated purpose, you can’t quite be a maker. Truer words have rarely been spoken.”