Here’s a cool quiz. See how many of the 100 most common words in the English language you can guess in five minutes.

I got 54 out of 100, with some some surprising misses.

Via ProofreadNOW, a quick study of two commonly confused words as conducted by Garner’s Modern American Usage, the standard for law-firm style. Garner writes:

Flammable, inflammable. The first is now accepted as standard in American English and British English alike. Though examples of its use date back to 1813, in recent years it has become widespread as a substitute for inflammable, in which some people mistook the prefix in- to be negative rather than intensive. Traditionally, the forms were inflammable and noninflammable; today they are flammable and nonflammable. By the mid-20th century, purists had lost the fight to retain the older forms.

Even staunch descriptivists endorsed the prescriptive shift from inflammable to flammable–e.g.: “A word is bad if it is ambiguous to such a degree that it leads to misunderstanding. For me, the perfect example of such a word is flammable, if it is applied to substances. As most dictionaries now recognize, inflammable can be confused with non-combustible, and so lead to accidents.” Archibald A. Hill, “Bad Words, Good Words, Misused Words,” in Studies in English Linguistics for Randolph Quirk 250, 252 (1983).

Here’s one. Be careful not to waste your whole afternoon.

This quick online test claims to measure the age of your brain. Is it younger than the age of your body? The same age? Older?

The instructions on the site are in Chinese, but here they are in English:

1. Click Start.
2. Wait for the countdown to finish. 3, 2, 1…
3. Numbers will appear scattered on the screen. Memorize them.
4. Blank circles will replace the numbers. Click the blank circles in numerical order, lowest to highest, based on what you’ve committed to memory.
5. Repeat this sequence ten times until the game ends.

At the end of the game, the age of your brain will be calculated.

My first try put my brain at 29 years old. Then I did it again and shaved off five years. 24. I figure with a little practice, I could probably get myself to believe in Santa Claus by the weekend.

→ Take the test

With fellow six-word memoirist and NYC social networking butterfly extraordinaire Jeff Newelt after checking out Eclectic Method‘s most ultra-mashy hellabadassiestness. Echo Park; August 3, 2008.

“Supported the sublime with uncurbed enthusiasm.”
— Jeff Newelt

I love this dog. Julieta, 3.5 years. Pit bull. Sweetest thing. Reminds me of my Kona, from the shape of her jaw to the texture of her ears to the sweetness in her eyes. Just an angel. [click to continue…]

With my cousin Sarah during her short visit out west from Washington, D.C. Shot at her friend’s haunted 1920s hotel-turned-apartment building, the Villa Carlotta, on Franklin in Hollywood in the wee hours of the morning on August 2nd, 2008. Our moms are sisters. And we have the same feet.

Is that Charlie Chaplin peeking out from behind the curtains?