[LINK] "A language is a dialect with an army and navy"

The thoroughness of the Wikipedia article on the origin of the linguistics aphorism "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is a credit to the online encyclopedia. The page also helps publicize an aphorism that captures a truth about the human use of language, namely, the denial that certain variants of human language are capable of being full-fledged "languages" complete with written and spoken standards producing standards--the regional dialects and languages of France, say, or the English-based creole languages of the Caribbean--simply because their speakers aren't sufficiently organized to get this recognition for their language. The Wikipedia article on patois is relevant in this context, as is the article on Franco-Provençal. I don't pretend to know what I should think about Scots

[REVIEW] Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes

Like Leah at Hobotaku and Scott Rosenberg at Read Express, I'd expected the two-volume Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes to be a cheap commercial tie-in, just another cross-promotion. This two-volume manga probably did have its origins in something like that, but Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes turned out to be a pretty good manga in its own right, with decent art and a plot (what could possibly go wrong if isolated young teenager Hana Davis whose only friend is an imaginary Lavigne gets a demon through the mail who promises to grant her five wishes in full?) that's smartly and somewhat scarily explored, overcoming its obvious similarity to the monkey's paw story.