April Expectations and Resolutions

Three months later means that I’m now three months behind on my twelve New Year’s resolutions. I’m a miserable failure.

But this month is going to be different. Yes, I wrote that last month, too, but April is going to be different different. April’s resolution is to post here on this blog at least five times a week for the entire month. How am I going to do it? Three things are different this month:

1. I have a plan.
2. I’m getting a head start. (It’s March 18 as I write this.)
3. I’m going to cheat. Cheat cheat cheatily cheat.

So just how am I going to turn this wmild-mannered writer and editor into Cheaty McCheaterson? Will I stoop to plagiarism? Or repost things from my past? Will I post a single sentence, one word at a time, just to say that I did it (not that I ever considered that)?

Nope. In the well-worn tradition of English classroom dishonesty, I’m going to have someone else do some of the work for me. (I’m talking about guest bloggers, not theft.)

Each Thursday this month, Logophilius will be visited by a new great word nerd blogger: James Harbeck (@sesquiotica), Kory Stamper (@KoryStamper), Tony Noland (@TonyNoland), and Jonathon Owen (@ArrantPedantry). I’ve left my expectations for this quartet pretty open, so even I don’t know what to expect from them!

So, four posts down, sixteen to go. What will I do for those? Remember when I said that I have a plan? This is it:

Infinite Jest (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All month, I’m will feature some interesting and seldom-used words that appear in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (my as-yet-unfinished first resolution). The book is chock full of great words, from acervulus to xerophagy, so I have a lot to choose from.

I’m also brewing some fun (I hope) posts that I hope everyone enjoys — but especially readers, writers, and editors. And you’ll still see three-word Wednesday poems, flash fiction, and dick jokes — the usual fare — but this month will be, as they say, supersized.

I hope you enjoy it and maybe learn a thing or two. Happy reading!

(Is that enough hype?)