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I'm in the process of making private the many hundreds of Facebook posts I made in middle school (2008-2011). I've noticed that seventh-grade me added "\n" at the ends of certain sentences. It resembles a tone indicator (such as /s for sarcastic, /gen for genuine), but I can't remember or think of what it could mean! Does anyone here retain any knowledge of 2010s internet lingo that could shed light on this? Could it have something to do with line breaks? Maybe a waving emoticon? See examples of usage inside. [more inside]
posted by Lurch at 6:19 PM - 17 answers

There is this book I read as a child, with strange pen illustrations that went into a lot of detail about American history. Please help me find it? [more inside]
posted by yueliang at 1:03 PM - 4 answers

Forgive my layman's possible misuse of terms. I believe some large information repositories have been indexed or otherwise cataloged and are able to take advantage of recent AI-assisted search powers. Has Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) or other writing style guidelines [AP, Apple Style Guide, etc] taken advantage of these improved natural language search capabilities like those in Claude.ai and ChatGPT?
posted by lometogo at 4:48 AM - 6 answers

I saw a road sign today for something called Lyttle Dowdle, and it triggered some memory in my brain of a song or rhyme with similar sounds. Can you think of any children's chant that might sound like those words? [more inside]
posted by luzdeluna at 8:27 PM - 10 answers

I want a list of the best selling novel(s) by year since the beginning of the 20th century or from the last 100 year. BUT I want data from the UK, not from the US. This is turning out to be hard to find. [more inside]
posted by EllaEm at 9:02 PM - 5 answers

I know an 8th grader who would benefit from reading more non-fiction. She loves fiction (mostly fantasy) but has decided she doesn't like non-fiction so she's not going to read it. But she actually does love learning new things. Are there collections of short non-fiction essays for the young teen set? [more inside]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:07 PM - 13 answers

I came across this story on Metafilter circa 2019. The only detail I remember is that one of the cats chased a skipper (type of butterfly). Searching my Favorites didn't turn it up. Also open to other short stories about cats!
posted by gray17 at 5:27 AM - 2 answers

Are there formal grammatical or rhetorical terms for talking about different ways to ask a question? In my mind, "Why is there a sock on the floor?", "Did you leave a sock on the floor?", and "Hey - there was a sock on the floor when I got home - any idea why it's there?" all ask the same question, but with vastly different degrees of accusation (I already assume YOU did it and I want to convey my irritation more than get an actual answer) down to curious inquiry (I saw the sock, I think maybe you left it there, but am open to being proven wrong or hearing extenuating reasons). Do these different questioning formats have formal names?
posted by Silvery Fish at 11:32 AM - 7 answers

I know, I know. Here is the deal--I was brought in as an additional author on a textbook. The previous edition has many virtues, but the writing style is not among them. It is turgid, clumsy, and difficult to read. Even Grammarly would choke on it. Can AI fix it, or at least get me started? [more inside]
posted by anonymous at 10:08 PM - 12 answers

Here's a word I can't read. I think it may be in Arabic. Can you read it? [more inside]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 1:07 PM - 9 answers

In 2012 it was announced that Knopf would publish all of Mavis Gallant’s journals in 5 volumes covering 5 decades of her life. This was with her cooperation. The first volume was slated to come out that year. So far nothing except a couple of excerpts have been publlished in the New Yorker. What happened?
posted by uans at 11:12 AM - 1 answers

I am starting to learn Arabic as a complete beginner. Is there a website, program, or MS Word/Google docs setting that would allow me to have properly formatted Arabic text in one column/text box and corresponding properly formatted English text in another, without having to constantly mess with document settings? [more inside]
posted by theotherdurassister at 2:59 PM - 3 answers

If competence and / or confidence with a particular skill increase in one’s second language, is it possible that this transfers over to their performance of the same task in their first language? [more inside]
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 10:09 PM - 11 answers

Hi everyone, Sometime in the early 80s, my dad bought a couple childrens books in the Seattle area. Both were in English, and were pretty clearly translated from Chinese. [more inside]
posted by lkc at 5:08 PM - 7 answers

When Saul Bellow says " She got out a block from church to avoid gossip." in Seize the Day, how many meters do you think this 'a block' is? By the way, the city is Roxbury. Thank you for helping my English study.
posted by mizukko at 11:21 PM - 13 answers

I've read a few books that really had an impact on how I viewed my behaviour and the behaviour of others and I'd love to read some more. Books that include anecdotes as examples are best as that helps me put the information into context. [more inside]
posted by Dynex at 2:50 PM - 14 answers

I recently went to an art show in Greece featuring a few Lithuanian artists and was struck by a few lyrics painted on a wall that seem to allude to an Orphic journey to the underworld. Can anyone find the source, author, and possible translator? [more inside]
posted by johnasdf at 1:39 PM - 0 answers

My late mother would always say "I wish you well to wear them/it" when someone acquired some nice new clothes or shoes. I have never heard anyone else say this. She was raised by Yiddish-speaking parents (Litvaks if that helps) but they only spoke English at home. I kind of feel that the slightly odd syntax might indicate a Yiddish origin. Is there a saying like this that might have been current at one time, and where/when/what language or culture would be?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:15 PM - 2 answers

I am going to teach a unit to my 12th grade AP Lit class around Kafka's "The Metamorphosis." Can you help find me diverse works to partner with it? More inside. [more inside]
posted by argybarg at 9:49 AM - 20 answers

I responded to a post by someone (let's call them "X") and got a very weird response in turn. [more inside]
posted by Dolley at 7:23 PM - 26 answers