Ask a linguist!

Hey all! I'm adding a new feature to the blog called "Ask a Linguist"! Language is a big part of what makes us human. So, of course, people like to think and talk about talking--especially linguists! But most people haven't had the advantage of studying linguistics in school and aren't familiar with what linguists do. So I'm issuing an open invitation to anyone who is curious about language: send me your questions, thoughts and musings, and I'll do my best to respond with as little jargon as possible! If I'm not sure how to answer, I'll try to point you in the right direction. Also, if you overhear someone talking in an interesting way, or making an interesting slip of the tongue, tell me about it!

To send me a question: email me, tweet me, Facebook me, comment on a post, send me a smoke signal...whatever works! Remember, there's no such thing as a dumb question!

 (Just one note: if you have a question like "Where did this (English) word come from?", check etymonline.com first--you'll probably find your answer.)

 I'll be archiving all my answers and language-related posts at the page linked right under my banner, if you want to browse. My blog's motto should be "ALIQUID: Come for the nail polish, stay for the linguistics!" Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue...

Swatch: Tough as Nails Purple Twilight

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Today I'm wearing a brand new polish from indie company Tough as Nails Lacquer (based in my home state of Michigan!). Purple Twilight is from Tough as Nails' summer collection and is described as "a purple base with loads of silver, indigo, and magenta glass flecks". When she says "loads", she means it! Check it out:

Two coats Tough as Nails Purple Twilight with one coat Out the Door topcoat

(I have no idea where that random piece of glitter on my ring finger came from. Maybe it fell in my bottle by mistake?)

I think she captured the essence of "twilight" quite beautifully, don't you? I love that the color is a bit dusty, as you would expect once the sun has gone down. The color of this polish is slightly more red-toned in real life, both in its base and due to the magenta flecks. Since my lightbox tends to dull sparkly things, I took this next picture outside the lightbox to capture some of the purple flash in Purple Twilight:

Lovely! With two coats my nail line was just barely visible, so two will be fine if you have shorter nails. The polish dries to a pretty smooth texture despite all the glass fleck.

The one downside to Purple Twilight was the formula. It was a bit gloopy and seemed to cling to the brush; I'm not sure if it was due to the polish base or the large amount of flecks. In any case I did end up with a bit of streaking that you might be able to see on my ring finger. A drop of polish thinner might help.

Despite the formula I do recommend this polish if you love purple, glass fleck finishes, or both! Purple Twilight is available at Tough as Nails' Etsy site ($9 for 15 ml or $5.75 for 7 ml). Tough as Nails lacquers are 3-free!

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Talking about talking: regular mice

Last month I posted about the linguistic process of analogy--where speakers change one part of their language to be more like another part. In that post, I mentioned that in general, a given irregular pattern in a language will tend to become regular over time. This raises an obvious question: if speakers tend to eliminate irregularity, then why aren't all languages totally regular by now? Where do new irregular patterns come from? The answer is actually quite simple: they're accidental.

Swatch: Indigo Bananas Executive Transvestite

 The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

My first ever post was a review of an Indigo Bananas polish, and now I have another! Indigo Bananas is an indie brand that first started gaining renown with an amazing collection of multichromes, and has now expanded to holographics. Her Executive Holos collection is inspired by Eddie Izzard; what I like about the collection is that each polish is not just a holo, but has something else going on too.

Executive Transvestite (great name!) is described as "a gold linear holo foil (metallic and holo at the same time) with a scattering of small gold flakies throughout". I tried to capture both the holo and foil aspects of the polish in my photos. The pics aren't as great as I would have liked, as my camera is apparently confused by linear holos, but I think you'll get the idea!

In the shade, Executive Transvestite fools you into thinking it's just a plain old gold foil:

Indigo Bananas Executive Transvestite, 3 coats with 1 coat Out the Door quick-dry topcoat. Shade.

But then you go into the sun and it's WHAM RAINBOWS!

Indigo Bananas Executive Transvestite, 3 coats with 1 coat Out the Door quick-dry topcoat. Direct sun.

Notice that you can still see some gold flakes in these shots too.

Indoors the holo is generally weaker, and depends on the light source. Here are a couple pics.

Indigo Bananas Executive Transvestite, 3 coats with 1 coat Out the Door quick-dry topcoat. Indoors with daylight lamp.

Indigo Bananas Executive Transvestite, 3 coats with 1 coat Out the Door quick-dry topcoat. Indoors in lightbox.

The formula on this polish was really great and easy to apply. Occasionally one of those gold flakes got stuck on my nail tip, but no biggie. The polish did take a while to dry, even with a quick-dry topcoat, probably because I needed three coats of it.

Here's one more bonus pic I snapped while lying in bed! Look at that rainbow!

Executive Transvestite is available on Indigo Bananas' Etsy page ($12 for 15 ml or $5.50 for 5 ml). She's currently transitioning to a new bottle shape, so the polish might be temporarily out of stock. Indigo Bananas is 3-free, vegan and cruelty-free!

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

I made food: curried couscous

I made another great side dish last night for my fiance! I grabbed this recipe from Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. If you like curry, you will like this, and it's much easier than making an actual curry. My favorite part of this dish is the dried cranberries--they add a real pop of sweet/sour to the curry flavor.

All you need to do (other than making some couscous) is whip up a dressing of equal parts yogurt and olive oil, a little bit of white wine vinegar, some curry powder, turmeric, salt and pepper. Then add some scallions, grated carrot, parsley, and dried cranberries. The original recipe also calls for red onion and almonds, but my fiance doesn't like raw onion and I don't like nuts, so I omitted those. Ina also notes that you can use lots of other types of dried fruit, like currants or golden raisins.

You can vary the spiciness of the dish according to what blend of curry powder you use; I'm a big baby when it comes to spicy, so mine just had a little bit of heat. Another great thing about this recipe is you could replace couscous with your grain of choice. I'm a big quinoa fan, so I might try that next time!

Swatch: Zoya Tinsley

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Hello and welcome to all my new readers! I'm glad to have you! Today I have pics of a new polish from the Zoya Irresistible summer collection. Tinsley is described as "a full-coverage, rose gold foil metallic". Zoya are really the masters of this kind of shimmery foil; like the others I have, Tinsley is a pretty complex color and can change a lot depending on the lighting.

First up I have some pictures taken in my lightbox with a daylight bulb.

Zoya Tinsley. Two coats with one coat Out the Door quick-dry topcoat.

You can see here that the base is pink, but it is absolutely packed with gold (and I think orange) flecks.

Outside in the sun the pink base pops even more, and the shimmer is blinding:

Finally, in indoor light that has a yellowish tint, Tinsley amazingly becomes really coppery. In fact, if I only saw this polish indoors I would never think to call it rose gold. This is the best my camera could do:

As for the formula, it was pretty nice, just the right consistency. I didn't get any bubbles, pulling or streaking. With two coats you can just barely see my nail line in some lights, but not enough to bother me. Zoya's foils do tend to be slow-drying, but with a quick-dry topcoat that problem went away. I anticipate a bit of trouble with removal because of all that shimmer.

I just can't stop staring at my nails right now! I want some more of these foils! The Irresistible collection is available at zoya.com ($8 for 15 ml).

(Pssst...are you following my Facebook page?)

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own. 

I made food: crack and cheese

Heh, two days after I talked about eating healthy I'm posting this. Yesterday I made a batch of Martha Stewart's "perfect macaroni and cheese" for my department's grad student picnic. Luckily I ended up with some leftovers, because this is seriously the greatest mac and cheese ever. I've made it around ten times and it always vanishes within two days.

You can find the recipe at this New York Times blog post. You'll notice first of all that this recipe contains over a pound and a half of cheese and a whole stick of butter, but who's counting? But this stuff is not just a cheese bomb: it also has nutmeg and cayenne pepper, which give it a bit of a bite and a more complex flavor. Not to mention that crunchy top of homemade bread crumbs!

It's pretty easy to make, just time consuming. To make the cheese sauce, you first have to make a white sauce by whisking butter, flour and milk for what seems like a million years. Not to mention shredding all that cheese (because you wouldn't buy pre-shredded cheese for this masterpiece, would you??).

I'm lucky my fiance is coming to visit so he can finish the rest of this stuff, otherwise I might overdo it!