Language – Professional Copywriter | Wyalusing, PA Bradford County

A Different Take on Guns and Shooting

This is no shooter, but when I’m done you’ll be shot. There are few issues more divisive than gun control, which is itself a term devoid of a simple meaning. The generally accepted definition is “restricting or limiting the sale or possession of firearms.” A firearm is usually a rifle or pistol, but guns include everything that shoots some kind of projectile, including cannons and missile launchers. They are the big guns. Guns can also shoot water [...]

By Wes Skillings|2023-05-30T16:54:31+00:00May 30, 2023|Definitions, English, Gun Control, Language, Phrases, Shooting, Vocabulary, Words|

Yukking It Up with Artificial Intelligence

Will artificial intelligence mimic a human's sense of humor? It seems that, all of a sudden, artificial intelligence is about to change life and humanity as we know it. Who is going to need writers, poets, artists, musicians, composers, philosophers, and even preachers when artificial intelligence is about to mine the best we have within us, including any thoughts and theories ever recorded or visuals created on canvasses and movie screens since the first stick figures were [...]

By Wes Skillings|2023-03-05T14:09:41+00:00March 5, 2023|Artificial Intelligence, Humor, Language, Learning, Minds, Politics, Social Issues, Social Media|

You Poop, Girl, and Freshen That Whiffy Butt!

This may be the year of redefining Democracy in these United States, notably the approaching midterm elections and continuing anger and unrest in a. divided nation. Cracks about butts and bottom-half drafts invade prime-time TV ads.GoGraph.com Art This is not about that. I’m seeing something else breaking in the winds of change with the prime-time television advent of pooping women, smelly crotches and whiffy butts. It is being called, among other things, a shift in advertising to [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-10-26T11:54:51+00:00October 26, 2022|Advertising, Black Americans, Commercials, Language, Women, Words|

Common Sense Origins: Brain, Heart or Gut?

Why are pea-brained horses dubbed as creatures with common sense while more intelligent species are known for the silliness of monkey business and monkeying around? We hear a lot about common sense whenever disagreements occur nowadays. When someone is cornered to defend some position he or she takes, the source of this knowledge is often credited to common sense. I’ve explored this topic before, because common sense, judging by what we as individuals choose to believe, is [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-08-29T13:23:55+00:00August 29, 2022|Common Sense, Intelligence, Language, Learning, Social Issues, Social Media|

A Strange Little Word with So Many Issues

Chowing down while the dogs fight over a bone of contention. I’ve spent of good deal of my life dealing with words. We all use them. At least all of us who speak or write, but even illiterate people, who may not know how to spell them, use them, and people who are unable to speak or hear must think them. I think about words and how they came to mean what they do. You use them [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-06-14T01:16:00+00:00June 14, 2022|Language, Synonyms, Vocabulary, Words, Writing|

Playing around with the Three “Homos”

Making it to the end of this essay is enough to wipe the smile off any face. I think I missed a week of blogging. I recently found a publisher for my book, and I’ve been going back and forth with a consultant, establishing a portal so we can start the editing process. That means carefully proofing two dozen chapters containing some 93,000 words and rounding up photos to illustrate the true crime manuscript. That’s my excuse [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-01-26T04:14:50+00:00January 26, 2022|Homonyms, Homophones, Humor, Language, Vocabulary, Words|

Communication Thrives on the Words We Use

The origins of the words we use are often primitive, but we shouldn’t abandon them too quickly. Every once in a while, I run into a language purist who likes to take issue with stuff I have written as being wrong-headed or just plain wrong. These are people who think you shouldn’t use words like “stuff,” as I just did, because it is lazy. Find the definitive word, they’ll lecture, because stuff means unspecified things. Still, there [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-01-24T09:09:32+00:00December 3, 2021|Language, Uncategorized, Vocabulary, Words|

Trying to Stay Relevant with an Aging Mind

Words and phrases that show your age. Uncool or rich in history and meaning? Now I’m too old to worry about whether I’m cool or not. Or is that too cool to worry about how old I am? I do know that it is still cool to use cool to mean something is, well, cool. It is one of the long-standing tidbits of slang that has lasted through multiple generations. Then again, that may not be true [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-01-24T09:09:40+00:00September 15, 2021|English, Humor, Language, Phrases, Sayings, Words, Writing|

Making Our Points with Exclamations!

Exclamations should be used sparingly for impact. Get the point? I’m not big on exclamation points. I have to be exceedingly excited, angry or enthused to use them in my writing. You use such things sparingly for effect. And yet, as someone who edited many articles, commentaries and letters to the editor over the years, I’ve seen exclamations used so liberally it’s like the written form of shouting. You have undoubtedly seen correspondence, email and social media [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-01-24T09:09:52+00:00April 7, 2021|Exclamations, Language, Punctuation, Sayings, Words|

Similes and Smiles from Classic Radio Scripts

When words sparked the visuals in listeners. I’m not driving around as much as usual. Maybe once a week we hit the road just to get away and, while we’re sheltering by vehicle, take a hike or stop to shop for necessities. That means I haven’t spent as much time listening to those classic radio shows on Sirius XM. I do have the app on my iPad, but I only use that sporadically for background noise while [...]

By Wes Skillings|2022-01-24T09:09:55+00:00January 26, 2021|Analogies, Humor, Language, Metaphors, Radio, Similes|

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