Statistical software visual pun

 Hat tip: An old friend.

Book: Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again by Katherine Angel

Angel, Katherine. 2022. Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent. Verso.

The book presents a critique of current consent-based, heavily contracted norms regarding sexual interactions from what one might call a left-humanist perspective.

If that sounds like something you would find interesting, you'll like the book.

I purchased this book at the Dussman English Bookshop in Berlin. It has the virtue of being open quite late so that one can stop by on the way from from dinner.

Oh dear [insert deeply disturbing noises here]

 

Hat tip: The only person for whom I have written a letter who has also written a letter for me.

Book: Nine Nasty Words, English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter

McWhorter, John. 2021. Nine Nasty Words, English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever. Avery Books.

John McWhorter teaches linguistics at Columbia. He also writes a column on language issues, broadly conceived, for the New York Times, and appears as a frequent guest on the Glenn Show podcast with economist Glenn Loury. Befitting his many accomplishments, he has a fine website.

I have read three of his books. The first was his book on black English, which I blogged about several years ago and quite liked. The second was his Woke Racism book, which I did not blog about and liked the least of the three. 

The present book, as its title subtly suggests, concerns the etymology of nine English naughty words, a set that includes words related to religion, such as hell and damn, words related to bodily functions, and racial and other slurs. McWhorter makes the case (drawn from the literature) that the naughtiest of naughty words have evolved over time through the three categories.  

The book delights in both substance and style. The histories of several of the naughty words exhibit wild twists and turns. Along with the summarizing (in most cases) the current consensus among linguists on these histories, McWhorter also elegantly dismisses various myths, such as one false origin story involving the instruction "ship high in transit." He demonstrates an amazing knowledge of pop culture references as well, ranging from obscure Broadway musicals of the past to episodes of the Jeffersons. And the wordplay ... ah the wordplay. So much fun. So many puns. 

My only complaint, which I suspect most readers in his target audience of people who buy small books displayed at the check-out counter of their independent bookstore would not share, is that I would have liked more talk about how linguists came to believe the various etymologies he recounts. I did appreciate the books discussion of how hard it is to trace down the usage history of some of the words because back in the day people did not write them down, at least not in the sorts of ways that would survive to the present day.  

In short, recommended. I liked it well enough that I bought a fourth McWhorter book when I finished this one. 

Addendum: Fixed McWhorter's affiliation from Brown (that's Loury) to Columbia.

Book: Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences by Michael Billig

Billig, Michael. 2013. Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press.

I read this one back during the pandemic and, indeed, even began a review post at that time.

The book offers a frontal assault on bad writing (and thus worse thinking) in the social sciences, with most of the examples drawn from the author's discipline of social psychology. 

Lots of negative lessons here for how to write better in economics, as well as some excellent examples of contributions to acronymic science (e.g., CHAT = "cultural historical activity theory") in the context of branding ones ideas. And wonderous jargon like "ideational metafunction." 

I have not laughed this hard at a non-fiction book since reading Frederick Crews back in gradual school at the recommendation of Nat Wilcox.

Recommended.

Hat tip: Lars Skipper

Book: The Voltage Effect, by John List

 List, John. 2022. The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale. Currency.

This is another one of those books by people I know. John and I overlapped for a time at the University of Maryland in the early noughties, when I was in the regular economics department and he was in the Agricultural and Resource Economics department. We had a handful of quite enjoyable lunches during that time. Once I got to Michigan it was on my to-do list to try and recruit him there, but Chicago hired him before I had a chance to reach out. 

The book mashes up a memoir with discussion of some of John's work as an economist both academic and professional. I found the parts I knew the least about the most engaging, namely the origin story about how John ended up as an economist and his contributions to the various private firms for which he labored along the way. John frames all of the stories in terms of various economic and business concepts and thus as lessons illustrated or sometimes lessons learned. At the end of it all, just when (or if) John sleeps remains unclear.

If you think you would like it, you will.

I won a free signed copy of the book via a raffle sponsored by the BFI (= Becker Friedman Institute or Big Frigging Institute, as you like). 

Society of Labor Economists Call for Papers

The call for papers for the next annual meeting of the Society of Labor Economists is now available!

The meetings will be in Denver on May 1-2, 2026. They will include, among other fine entertainments for the mind, a presidential address by yours truly.

You can find the call for papers here.