Nancy Friedman

Anyone else seeing "comfortability" (= comfort)? Seems like yet another case of needless extra syllables, as in "oftentimes."

*would have written

Maaaaybe. “Chix" is a pretty established abbreviation for chicken. The S.F. companies are all newish and tech-y.

Chicken and custard, though: intriguing! (The counterpart here is chicken and waffles.)

Founded in January 2017. The Brexit referendum was in 2016. The company could have pivoted.

“Want it? Just Brex it!”

Zoox: It's Not a Car | Zoox Zoox is a purpose-built autonomous vehicle designed for riders, not drivers. Learn more about the Zoox robotaxi and the future of ride-hailing.

Also spotted occasionally around S.F.: Zoox, the autonomous-vehicle company owned by Amazon. #naming #trends share.google/k8U4ZnFx6wn2...

Muni bus ad for Nooks, an AI company

More terminal /ks/ naming, spotted in San Francisco. Yes, it's another AI company. #Nooks #naming

Word of the week: WDNC Who cares? Not us.

Word of the week: WDNC.

“We Do Not Care.”

fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...

Correction: "nova" isn't "no va."

Seems to be exhibiting staying power. “Yassify" was @americandialect.org's informal word of the year for 2021.

2021-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf share.google/HeGeSRfrlsF2...

Love this.

Show me your budget, and I'll show you your values

Off to see the new documentary “Paddy Chayevsky: Collector of Words” at the SF Jewish Film Festival. 3/fin

“The nickname was given spontaneously when he was awakened at dawn for kitchen duty. Although actually Jewish, he asked to be excused to attend Mass. ‘Sure you do, Paddy,’ said the officer, and the name stuck.” (Wikipedia) 2/

TIL how the screenwriter Sidney Aaron “Paddy” Chayevsky got his nickname. 1/

Let’s Get One Thing Straight About the Chevrolet Nova The name has never meant “no go.”

I've done a *lot* of research on this subject!
wordworking.medium.com/lets-get-one...

But “nova” isn't “nova.” Is ”notable" “no table"?

Same with the various 818 brands.

Naming briefs #16 Take a number: 776, 1906, and Article 41.

Numerals can be brand names. But can they be *good* brand names?

open.substack.com/pub/fritinan...

"In a 2021 survey, 15 percent of men said they didn’t have any close friends, up from 3 percent in 1990. The same report showed that in 1990, nearly half of young men said they would reach out to friends when facing a personal issue; two decades later, just over 20 percent said the same."

Why Women Are Weary of the Emotional Labor of ‘Mankeeping’

"Mankeeping."(gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/w...

Enshittification Enshittification: it’s not just you—the internet sucks now. Here’s why, and here’s how we can disenshittify it.We’re living through the Enshittocen...

Enshittification: the book (by Cory Doctorow, naturally). us.macmillan.com/books/978037...

New York Times’ Style Guide Substitutions for “The President Violated the Constitution”. “The president, tiptoeing precipitously down the sidelines of legality, inadvertently ran the constitutional football out of bounds.” [mcsweeneys.net]

#shitmanteau, and they don't get a pass because they're based in Belgium.

Hey, they're “freemote"!

(Maybe it sounds better in Flemish?)

Great stuff as always!

Points for truth: The title is DEAD CENTER but all you have to do is look at the cover picture to see that he's on the right.

DEAD CENTER is a perfect example of an overly workshopped title. Like, it makes some sense if you parse it—the center is dead, or imperiled—but evoking that idea if you're also self-branding as a centrist is self-defeating.

also DEAD CENTER sounds like the title of a generic airport thriller

How Tom Lehrer Escaped the Transience of Satire The late songwriter’s targets are mostly forgotten—so why do new generations keep discovering him?

“This self-contained quality—the songs deliciously fixing their subjects in formaldehyde—is part of what keeps Lehrer’s work alive.” — Adam Gopnik
www.newyorker.com/culture/post...

Word of the week: Tryst Caught on the kiss cam! Très triste.

On the sorrows of a too-public couple.

fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...