A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

lipography  (li-POG-ruh-fee, ly-)  noun The omission of a letter or syllable in writing  From Greek lipo- (lacking) + -graphy (writing).  Earliest documented use:  1888.  Imagine you’ve just started your great epic novel and one of the keys on your keyboard is broken.  It would be trivial to manage without a Q, X, or Z, but writing without a single E--that’d be some challenge.  If it sounds undoable, consider that whole books have been written without an E, the most used letter in the English language. Without an E, one has to give up some of the most common pronouns such as he, she, we, me, and so on. What’s more, even the article “the” is barred. 

From:  Vincent Andrunas  Subject:  lipography  You wrote that “whole books have been written without an E, the most used letter in the English language,” including Georges Perec’s novel, La Disparition, and Ernest Vincent Wright’s 1939 novel Gadsby.  Of course, that would mean that neither author signed his work.  

From:  Stéphane Vuilleumier   Subject:  lipography  I wish to confirm that La Disparition is a great read on top of being the achievement that it is.  Weird-sounding sometimes but never really artificial.  In terms of absurdly impossible achievements, one could also mention that Perec owns the record for the longest palindrome in French (1247 words). 

From:  Haluk Şardağ  Subject:  lipography  La Disparition was translated to Turkish as well, also without e.  

From:  Karen Mueller-Harder   Subject:  Ella Minnow Pea  For a highly delightful read, I recommend Ella Minnow Pea: a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable by Mark Dunn, in which the writings and utterances of a small island community are increasingly proscribed by the ruling council, limiting their ability to use certain letters of the alphabet, with banishment the punishment for disobeying.  AWADmail Issue 1076   

March 8, 2023  International Women’s Day  259 million fewer women have access to the Internet than men, even though they account for nearly half the world's population.  37% of women do not use the internet.  If women are unable to access the Internet and do not feel safe online, they are unable to develop the necessary digital skills to engage in digital spaces, which diminishes their opportunities to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields.  By 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to STEM areas.  Yet today, women hold just 22% of positions in artificial intelligence, to name just one.  The United Nations Observance of IWD, under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, recognizes and celebrates the women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education.  The observance will explore the impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities, and it will also spotlight the importance of protecting the rights of women and girls in digital spaces and addressing online and ICT-facilitated gender-based violence.  https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day  

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy originates as a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (March 8, 1978)  

foundress (plural foundresses)  noun  (dated) A female founder (“one who founds or establishes”). quotations ▼ (zoology, specifically) A female animal which establishes a colony. quotations ▼  Alternative form founderess  From founder (“one who founds or casts metals”) +‎ -ess (suffix forming female forms of words).  Founder is derived from Middle French fondeur (“owner of a foundry; ironworker in charge of smelting, founder”) (modern French fondeur), from Latin fundātor (“founder”) (rare)  foundress (plural foundresses) (metallurgy, obsolete, rare)  A female founder (“one who founds or casts metals”). quotations ▼ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foundress#English  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2641  March 8, 2023