Jonah: No, I’m not slumbering. I am (a) getting my garden–sorry, yard–ready for the summer, (b) doing some treehouse maintenance (in the course of which, btw, I found out that I can blog from up there–my wireless thingy is just in range), and (c) READING. I’ve been falling behind in reading & want to catch up, & generally to spend less time at the computer & more with books. I especially want to read Ramesh’s book (though I haven’t got it yet–my town bookstore doesn’t have it).

—Significant. This word has a precise meaning in statistics, & I think that has leaked over into expressions like “significant rainfall,” which can be translated to something like “noticeably more than you’d expect at this time of year.” That’s not really a justification of the usage, since in the statistical meaning you have to specify some quantification of the significance, using correlation coefficient, chi-square confidence levels, and the like. I don’t find it very objectionable, though.

—Irregardless. A lost cause. I saw the wonderful movie Hester Street soon after it came out in 1975. At the point where the smart-aleck lawyer says: “Irregardless, as we lawyers say…” everyone in the movie theater laughed. Today, nobody would see the joke.