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Jan Freeman

@janfreeman.bsky.social
509 followers 146 following 477 posts

Mostly retired editor/writer/Boston Globe language columnist; author of centenary edition of Ambrose Bierce's "Write It Right" (Walker, 2009), whose subtitle is too long for this space. Not the Massachusetts poet who shares my name.

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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
SURPRISED: by the lightweight verb in this morning’s Boston Globe headline: BC professor frets over AI bubble NOT SURPRISED: to discover that the law professor in question is a woman.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
A message from NYT Wirecutter offered "Ideas for a screen-free summer" and I seriously thought it was about alternative ways to repel bugs. Oh. You mean this kind of screen.
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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Folks who won't be fooled by politicized official economic statistics: - The Fed - The bond market - The stock market - Foreign investors Folks who will be flying blind in the absence of reliable econ data: - All of the above - Small biz - Big biz - Voters
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Watching "Outrageous," about the Mitfords and Mosley, and the characters have uttered (versions of) "Want to come with?" 4 times in 3 episodes. Seriously doubt the Mitfords and their set ever used that locution, but willing to hear otherwise from Brits & linguists. (Does BrE do it even today?)
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
I hope we are all enjoying Justin Wolfers, one of my favorite economists (I know a few), who for some reason is allowed to say true things on TV. Watch him use the word "lying" three times about government debt claims.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
The OED's subscription notice tells me: "If you'd not want to renew it you can untick the 'Auto renew' option." Would love comment from BrE speakers — the cites I've found use "you'd not" to mean "you hadn't" or "you didn't," neither of which fits here. @lynneguist.bsky.social
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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Trump is channeling King Cnut without the slightest grasp of the point the Danish monarch was trying to make.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Last night's sunset illuminating the trees (and still-stormy skies) to the east. Wow.
Setting sun (behind camera) lights up treetops and their reflections in a river, below gray clouds moving eastward after a brief storm.
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Dave Nelsen @thegrammargeek.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
In 2025, I might launch a consulting service wherein people tell me their grammar peeves and I remind them that the world is on fire and Trump is about to be sworn in as president again so no one cares that they hate hearing “irregardless” once or twice a year.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
A month ago, this foggy morning view would have been depressing. But now I can see the pink of the maple buds getting ready to pop, which changes everything. (OK, not everything. But it helps.)
Foggy morning on a cove with a red maple (I think) on the near bank showing the misty pink of buds just beginning to open.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Witch hazel isn't the most adorable spring bloom, but it's so enthusiastic! And most important, I can enjoy ours through the window, without braving wind or mud.
Branches of bright yellow witch hazel in bloom, seen through a window against a blue sky with white clouds.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Google AI elbowing aside actual sources to contradict the info that's in its own calendar (and everyone else's):
Search result from Google AI claiming that St. Patrick's Day 2025 is on Wednesday, which is actually March 19, not March 17.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
This should have run yesterday, National Grammar Day, but better (a little) late than never.
"Bizarro" cartoon from March 5, 2025, labeled "Grammar Police." Shows a cop handcuffing a man and saying "You're under arrest for using 'tis and 'twas outside of December without a poetic license."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Just learned that LifeStance, private equity owner of my therapist's group, wants a $70 penalty because I called to reschedule an appt. only 47 hours and 47 minutes in advance, not a full 48 hours. Mass. health care is already in crisis thanks to owners who bled Steward dry. When will we learn?
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
This is what I need to see first thing every day, just to keep my spirits up.
Bizarro cartoon (Sun. 1/26/2025) of the damned in hell breaking rocks amid flames, among them Bezos & Zuckerberg. Ordinary guy says "I have to admit I've gotten a kick out of meeting so many famous billionaires & politicians."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Wow, an actual earthquake here in Boston! Takes me (way) back to my Southern California years…
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
A rare sight: Once upon a time, there was skating every winter on this little bit of the Charles River (and on longer sections of the river, too, according to local lore). But in the 20 years we've lived in the neighborhood, the number of skateable days has steadily dwindled.
Ice skaters on part of the Charles River adjacent to a park in Newton, Mass., on one of the increasingly rare days that the river freezes hard enough for skating.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Aiming this at @fritinancy.bsky.social because her word mavenry includes fashion mavenry, but would welcome all answers: What is the point of drop(ped) shoulders, i.e. sleeves with the shoulder seam placed several inches down the arm? Does it save money, and if so how (vs., say, raglan sleeves)?
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
From today's comics, a good prompt for an editorial New Year's resolution: Don't fall for the notion that you have to use "fewer" (instead of "less") any time you spot a number in the neighborhood. It depends on what the number is doing there, and "10 items or less" is perfectly good English.
"Rhymes with Organge" strip for 1/1/2025: Two lines at the coffee shop: A long one at the regular register, one person at the express line, where you must place your order in "5 words or less."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Out shopping the other day, I was greeted for the first time (and second, and third) with "Welcome in!" I asked a saleswoman how long she'd been using it, and she said maybe 10 years. Apparently it's in pockets all over the US, & sometimes employer mandated. A blend of "welcome" and "come in"?
eater.com
Why Did Everyone Suddenly Start Saying "Welcome In"?
The phrase took over the hospitality industry seemingly overnight, but no one seems to know where it originated.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
"Covering about two-thirds of the ring makes an asymmetrical wreath look modern, not unfinished." 🤨
Wreath on metal ring has greenery on only part of it, and is captioned "Covering two-thirds of the ring makes an asymmetrical wreath look modern, not unfinished."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Halfway through "Black Doves" and not minding the implausibility at all, but … I have some language quibbles. There's Sam's signature "I'll endeavor to try," which I guess is supposed to be subtle and witty, but it just makes me wonder if the writers know what "endeavor" means. (1/2)
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
A letter to today's Globe Magazine refers to a woman who "betray[ed] those who friended her" — that is, her friends. Is anyone hearing this usage in spoken English? Are people now using the verb "friend" to mean "befriend" even when the relationship is IRL, not online?
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
I was on a chat about a return and the rep said it the item wasn't really eligible but he could do it as a GWG. I said "what's a GWG?" and he said, Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to abbreviate that, etc. But (as many of you know), it just means "goodwill gesture," so I wonder, why the repeat apologies?
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Jon Danziger @danziger.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, The bell is out of network, And you did not get prior authorization. But your call is very important to us, So please hold for an automated survey.
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Tom Freeman @tomfreeman.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
I glanced back at the prison that I’d finally escaped from. What thrilled me most was knowing that I’d ended my sentence with a preposition.
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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 03/12/2024
media.tenor.com
leonardo dicaprio is wearing a tuxedo and bow tie and smiling with the words yasssss written below him
ALT: leonardo dicaprio is wearing a tuxedo and bow tie and smiling with the words yasssss written below him
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
"He … makes them more present and that terrible word, relatable." I always think this is a shady rhetorical move. "I am using this bad word cautiously," it says, "but your use of it is trite and thoughtless." If you truly think a word is "terrible," maybe use a different one?
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Boston Globe review/interview: "The F-Word" is fantastic AF!
bostonglobe.com
The endless lexical fertility of the F-word - The Boston Globe
The expletive that really gives a [damn] has blossomed so widely, it needed a new compendium from Jesse Sheidlower.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
3/But when Mew's poem was published, in 1916, the old rule said you express simple futurity with the forms "I shall/you will/he will." (For the mandatory sense, it's "I will/ you shall/he shall.") Mew was using the standard language of her time — as the LRB promptly learned from its readers.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
2/In the London Review of Books, a critic quoted a poem by Charlotte Mew with the line, “You will have smiled, I shall have tossed your hair.” Why the shift from "will" to "shall," he wondered: "I think it’s Mew’s way of not having too much style. ‘Shall’ is somehow less lyrical than ‘will.'"
lrb.co.uk
Matthew Bevis · A Whack of Pies: Dear to Mew
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Benjamin Dreyer is correct (of course!) to say that most of us needn't worry about the archaic distinctions between "shall" and "will." But as my fellow editors know, any scrap of info may come in handy. Here's a case where knowing the shall/will thing would have been useful to an editor or writer:
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Benjamin Dreyer is correct (of course!) to say that most of us needn't worry about the archaic distinctions between "shall" and "will." But as my fellow editors know, any scrap of info may come in handy. Here's a case where knowing the shall/will thing would have been useful to an editor or writer:
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 02/11/2024
This monster bug is visiting and I wonder if it might have been the design inspiration for the Cybertruck.
3 inch long dark colored flying beetle (?) hanging on a screen at sunrise.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
Just a tiny peeve: The phrase "till death us do part" (or "do us part," if you prefer) has been around in wedding vows for more than 400 years. Apparently that's not long enough to convince some editors that the pronoun really should remain objective case, even in your clever variation.
NYT print headline from 10/27/24 that ran on a wedding story (Jonathon Otcasek, son of the Cars' Rick Ocasek and model Paulina Porizkova, to Erin Kim): "After a Graveyard Start, It's Till Death Do They Part."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
It was the only closeup the hippos would allow.
Hippos (from behind) relaxing in the water at the San DIego Zoo.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
Here's a Boston Globe story I definitely won't be reading:
Headline on a Jeff Jacoby opinion piece in the Boston Globe 10/30/24: "Why I won't vote for president."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 26/10/2024
One commenter on this Alexandra Petri column has an excellent idea: "We are a group of ten friends. We drew straws and one kept his subscription so he can gift YOU to the rest of us."
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | It has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president
Isn’t this what a newspaper is supposed to do?
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 26/10/2024
Some other nice distractions this week: The Morandi show in NYC, and afterward, lunch at Piccola Cucina Uptown, where they make (very tasty) individual servings of tiramisu at tableside.
Still life by Giorgio Morandi portraying a group of white ceramic objects.Single tiramisu under construction in an orange cup; server is adding a cream/mascarpone layer as she gets near the top. In the background, a bowl of mini ladyfingers and one of melted chocolate.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 26/10/2024
Such a beautiful fall we're having in the Northeast. I hope I'll look back at my photos when the background vibe is no longer this pervasive anxiety about the election (and has returned to the normal pervasive anxiety about war and climate change).
Fall foliage reflected in the water in Newton, Mass. Fall foliage atop a rock outcropping on a highway in Massachusetts.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 17/10/2024
In northern Ohio, two parties on one tree lawn.* *Or devil strip, tree strip, curb, parkway, terrace, swale, tree belt, depending on where you live.
Lawn signs in front of a house in Ohio support Trump/Vance, Kellie Deeter (R), and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D).
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 13/10/2024
Speaking of grammar books, @tomfreeman.bsky.social and @lanegreene.bsky.social, does either of you plan to review/comment on this book, in which GKP tries to simplify the New Grammar for people like me (non-linguists steeped in the confusing Old Grammar)? Makes me wish I were a student again!
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 13/10/2024
Mr. Swan has got all his ducks in a row
Seven ducks in a row on the water with a swan following them.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 12/10/2024
Finally tracked down this great election year comic — "Christ for President" — from 1992, and am wondering why the creators haven't updated it every four years. Of course, in 2024 it would probably end with Jesus going to heaven the same way he originally did.
1992 cartoon by Bruce Handy  & Maurice Vellekoop shows Jesus running for president, only to be beaten by Sonny Bono.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 12/10/2024
Finally tracked down this great election year comic — "Christ for President" — from 1992, and am wondering why the creators haven't updated it every four years. Of course, in 2024 it would probably end with Jesus going to heaven the same way he originally did.
1992 cartoon by Bruce Handy  & Maurice Vellekoop shows Jesus running for president, only to be beaten by Sonny Bono.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 09/10/2024
Thanks for the reminder, @editrix-rachel.bsky.social — I also have a fall foliage photo from yesterday's #MorningWalk. Possible title: Why I Didn't Stay In California (Despite Loving Many Things about California).
Two trees in MA park, smaller one with red-orange leaves seen through a branch of the foreground tree, which is still insistently green.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 03/10/2024
Is it dumber than Grammarly? I searched for the traditional usage advice on "like" vs. "such as," and Google's AI topped the results. It explained that "such as" introduces examples, while "like" is for making comparisons: "For example, I like Sarah but I don't like her brother much."
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 17/09/2024
@esb.lol Neuece
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 11/09/2024
Was a bit surprised to hear Gary Oldman say "step foot" in today's season opener of #SlowHorses, though there's no reason it should be just an American thing. (I know, for many of you it's the default, but it only took off in the 1980s. Us olds, we say "set foot.")
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 05/09/2024
You've been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who is coming to save you? I think I'm in luck, but I won't know till there's been a bunch of laughing/shooting/running/cursing. (The scheming and killing have already begun.)
Gary Oldman and Christopher Chung in "Slow Horses" Season 4.
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