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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 · 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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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 · 24/03/2025
Kevin Kline as the Pirate King in the movie version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance.”
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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 · 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 · 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 · 01/01/2025
As I once said back at the other place:
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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 · 01/01/2025
Our little neighborhood lights up every winter, and most people leave the lights up for a couple of months — it really helps. (And it's worth driving through if you're not far away: Islington Peninsula, Auburndale [Newton], Mass.)
Suburban street at  night with lighted globes hanging from the trees (Islington Peninsula, Newton, MA).
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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 · 20/12/2024
OK I must now post this bit from "Master and Commander," to which my first response was "Jane Austen never told us about this!"
Passage from O'Brian's "Master and Commander" describing a male after-dinner guest getting up to use the chamber pot while conversing with the other men. He comments that he knows people who have a solid silver chamber pot.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Here's my favorite Klee angel, because if an angel shows up in my house I definitely want it bringing me breakfast in bed, and not, say, telling me I'm pregnant with some world-historical embryo.
Paul Klee's lithograph "A Guardian Angel Serves a Small Breakfast" (1920)
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Flambards! To be fair, it WAS a long time ago.
Cover of a CD set of "Flambards," a 1979 series set in England before and during WWI and first shown in the US in 1980.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Hey this reminds me, I have an idea for how you could take the winter break you said you need. It's kind of amazing how many of the old strips are totally current; why not pull a Doonesbury and run a month of historic highlights? Like this one from 30 years ago (sorry abt the glare on photo):
Tom Tomorrow cartoon from 1994 shows Sparky quizzing Biff about why he voted for the party that wants to mandate school prayer, put kids of welfare moms into orphanages, and repeal Roe v. Wade: "To get big government off our backs, of course!"
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Here's a nice Borgward Isabella coupé, and yes, my fellow editors, the accent aigu is right there on the car.
Rear end of a vanilla-colored Borgward auto ('50s- '60s) showing the chrome nameplate "Isabella coupé"
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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
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 · 26/10/2024
Then there's "crispy": I was editing food stories (among other things) when "crispy" began its rise in the 80s/90s. Looks like "crisp" has also increased its reach since then, but "crispy" remains ubiquitous in the food world, in both BrE and AmE.
Google Ngram graph showing both "crisp crust" and "crispy crust" rising steeply in popularity since c. 1980.
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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 · 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 · 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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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 05/09/2024
A month ago, the bunnies had eaten every flower in our little raised bed, so I hadn't been near it till today. And it was not barren: two volunteer cherry tomato plants, seeded by birds, are producing unmolested. Is the lesson here to plant these later, when critters are less ravenous?
Eight ripe cherry tomatoes in a metal strainer
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 23/08/2024
Also, in Ithaca I have (in addition to human friends) a dear cat friend, which is nice because my husband is too allergic to live with one. She likes to nestle in my luggage, apparently unaware that the blue socks and purplish lining are not her most flattering colors.
Large lovely tortoiseshell cat in small suitcase (just the right size, according to her).
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 23/08/2024
Cannot understand how the good Christians of Jim Jordan's district have left this lamp to languish at Goodwill, when for $10 they could light up their lives. Have fled Ohio for Ithaca, NY, where they have at least heard of rosé wine.
Brass lamp with vaguely Tiffany-style glass shade with 5 or 6 panels, each showing Jesus on the cross.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
Some things don't change, though: My favorite chickens are still strutting their stuff in the 4-H poultry barn.
Caged chicken, black with pompadour of white feathers. Sorry I don't know the breed!
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
Also new to me: You can buy an outdoor grill built into half a car. Why? It's a mystery. Another mystery: Where are all the games of "skill" where you throw a ball at immovable bottles and so on? What's the fair without kids walking around with giant stuffed animals? #Ohio
For sale at the county fair, a grill built into the back half of a small red car and another built into half a blue car, under a red-and-white striped tent. No prices since stand is closed.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
Haven't been to the county fair in so long I don't know what rolled ice cream is, nor "Swiss fried cheese." Apparently the latter is batter-dipped fried cheese, just what you'd expect, so actually "fried Swiss cheese." #Ohio
Swiss fried cheese/corn dog stand at the Huron County, Ohio, fair.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 19/08/2024
Headed "home" to see lots of family, and right about here we got our welcome to Jim Jordan's congressional district (from which, alas, we will not emerge for days).
Route 20 west of Cleveland, Ohio, with traffic going under an orange banner that reads "SUPER GUN RAFFLE Sept. 14th."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 08/08/2024
Especially if you're not much of a beach person anyway ...
Strip from Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac: Little Alice is dancing with excitement because "we're going to the beach!" She asks brother Petey to remind her: "What's at the beach anyway?" Says Petey: "Sun, sand and saltwater. The three itchiest things in the  natural world."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 10/07/2024
Since we agree that Toscanini's burnt caramel is the best ice cream flavor ever invented, I used @ckummer.bsky.social's caramel-burning instructions (from an old Atlantic mag) to make a burnt caramel semifreddo instead. You can scoop it up with the chocolate wafers. Fantastico!
Melting caramel semifreddo in a stemmed sherbet glass with a chocolate wafer garnish.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 17/06/2024
Treetops lit up gold by sun setting behind photographer, pond and trees in darkness below them, blue skies with white clouds above.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 15/06/2024
He was "only" the opening act for this big show ...
Stevie Wonder opened for the Stones in July 1972 at the Boston Garden, and played for hours while the Stones were delayed after being arrested in Rhode Island.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 15/06/2024
The original Bizarro, Jan. 9, 2014:
Ancient hieroglyphics carver at work on a row of images. Standing behind him, editor/critic says: "It's eye before flea, except after sea."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 15/06/2024
Something from The Other Place for us editors to enjoy. (I don't know if the poster is also the author of the French version. The original, from Jan. 9, 2014, will follow.)
Ancient hieroglyphics carver at work on a row of images. Standing behind him, editor/critic says: "It faut mettre l'oeil avant the scarabée, sauf si le participe passé est placé devant le serpent."
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 04/06/2024
I grew up in a small Ohio town, and so many memories are tied to our Carnegie library. I think it's in better shape now than it was then, but as a kid/teenager I didn't care about anything but the books.
Photo of red brick 2.5-story library building with wide, tall stairs to a portico with a glass entryway flanked by two columns. Foreground is a wide sidewalk with pring blooming trees and benches on each side.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 19/03/2024
Sometimes your ad is better without a proofreader.
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Jan Freeman @janfreeman.bsky.social · 21/12/2023
Part 2 of the story, involving a Christmas card and a 1939 New Yorker cover, didn't make the Globe cut, but it too seems to be at least part fiction. So I published what I know on my neglected blog (will that be proof enough for Wikipedia?).  throwgrammarfromthetrain.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-...
"Santa" holding an astonished toddler as he kisses his wife
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