Department Of Writing | Friends, Romans, Countrymen Newsletter - DEPARTMENT OF WRITING NEW ZEALAND

Friends, Romans, countrymen,
lend me your archives.

Back issues of Friends, Romans, countrymen..., our more-or-less-fortnightly newsletter on good writing and communication. Take it seriously at your peril.

Listen to Ken discussing FRC with Jesse Mulligan on RNZ here.

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2018

187 - flabbergasted

185 - levidrome

185 - levidrome

2017

180 - winningest

177 - concussion

171 - meet

161 - presume/assume

160 - What the hell were you thinking?

2016

155 - The low down on 'low'

151 - existence

150 - The stunning, amazing, really most very excellent edition

140 - Brig, aftermath, bacon, Herr, trailer, movie

138 - ferroequine

2015

2014

112 - On hybrids, mongrels and epic journeys.

111 - A rant on parallel structure

110 - The dangerosity of utilising floral confabulation in your manuscription

109 - The nauseous issue and how to write a book just like Malcolm Gladwell does

108 - Journalists behaving badly and a psychologist joke

107 - New Steven Pinker book hits the shelves, knees jerk.

106 - The tpyography issue

105 - What a trenchant wit you possess, digger

104 - The feckless boyfriend

103 - How feculent was my valley, and other things to never say

102 - The quick, the dead, Barack Obama, and Bill & Ted

101 - more crappy song lyrics and a charming outburst from Richard Harris

100 - Are you pretentious? A liar? Ask the Latinometer.

99 - The world's most unlistenable song lyrics? Vote now!

98 - Why are we waiting, an atheist joke, and some great lines from a lame movie

96 - ord crimes, reductio ad Hitlerum, denization and how to fold a suit. (Will the jollity never cease?)

95 - Do Greeks know the name of their own country?

94 - Batman returns and PJ O'Rourke twiddles his thumbs

93 - You're toast. Spicy toast. Plus, the world's greatest billboard.

92 - Dan Carter resigns! Coopers everywhere blame missing hyphen.

91 - Wood/wooden, check. Wool/woollen, check. But cow/cowen?

90 - Octopuses? Octopi? Octopodes? (And does it matter?)

89 - You ordered hell? Will that be on wheels or in a handbasket?

88 - The subject that dare not speak its name

87 - Thebigbutnotsodauntingwhenyouunravelthemwordsissue

86 - Where's Fluffy? Anyone seen Fluffy? Fluffeeeeeee!!!

85 - Crepuscular birds and some silly signs.

84 - Gamut vs gambit. And the ultimate know-it-all's quiz.

83 - Blimey, I'm stymied! Plus free Aussie travel, right here!

81 - Bint, the world's greatest tv ad, the joys of sewing.

79 - Typhoid Mary's sad fate, and a puzzling but important sketch.

78 - Sharpen your writing skills and get $100 credit. And discover why Ms Goldberg's called Whoopi.

76 - The grumpy issue

75 - "Different from" or "different to"? And a word that's 3.5 hours long

74 - Planes, trains and different ways to die.

73 - If a wildflower isn't wild, is it still a wildflower?

72 - Big numbers with silly names. And a silly riddle.

71 - Why cleanliness is next to grossness

2013

70 - Higgs, Halley, Vespucci and where nachos come from.

69 - Verse or versus? Let's ask Shakespeare!

68 - The 6000-year-old word, your pet walrus, teaching kids to speak proper.

67 - Gossip! Donald Duck! Word sponsorship!

66 - You specious little hyrax. -esque or -ish?

65 - Being hip, being British, and the funny thing about jazz.

64 - Dead pledges, Jamaican insults and how many chords is too many?

59 - Curse that curtilage

58 - Dilapidation and decimation, jots and tittles

57 - Grab yourself an iPad mini. Then read about the Catholic chicken.

56 - The, like, discourse particle issue. (And do linguists make jokes?).

55 - See ya round, Elmore Leonard.

54 - Seven words to drive you crazy.

53 - Alternate or alternative? PLUS: Drug abuse for slow talkers.

52 - War,tuxedos, Facebook circa 1939.

51 - Antonyms, Stephen Fry and yippee-ki-yay.

49 - tick tock, stadiums v stadia, what the heck is shrift?

48 - epistolary lot

44 - skeuomorph

41 - non-sequitur

39 - toilet brushes provided

38 - crash blossoms blossom

37 - Gettysburg Address

35 - Ask not for whom the bell tolls . . .

32 - all hat and no cattle

31 - There but for the grace of God . . .

30 - Scuttlebutt

29 - apostrophe abuse

28 - the putative mood

25 - Trouble at t'board

2012

21 - Pardon the interruption

20 - Negotiating Alveolar Ridge

19 - When two worlds collide.

18 - The usefulness of dummies.

17 - Does punctuation matter?

16 - 'Who' or 'That'?

15 - A passive voice

13 - Procrastinate

11 - Serendipity

8 - The doubly redundant Kiwi

7 - Ye olde mispronunciation

6 - Frankly, my dear, hopefully is fine

5 - more on contrastive reduplication

4 - Do moo-moos eat salad salad?

3 - to '-ly or not to '-ly?

2 - "tis I, the twit

1 - the first FRC ever