Sitting in a Starbucks
No, I wasn't reading "a long list of ex-lovers". I was sitting there writing a Language Log post about DeepL (probably next up after this one). Across from me was a man with a big red beard. I was writing a LL post on my beloved little, old MacBook Air and he was writing a long list of components, parts, and numbers, mixed in with some sketched diagrams on a white legal pad.
He seemed to be diligent, and he looked like a constructor, a builder of houses. Finally, curiosity got the best of me, so I walked over and asked him, "What is that you're writing?"
"I'm working on a kwow", he replied.
"A what?" I asked.
"A kwow," he repeated.
I thought maybe he was saying "crow", but doing something funny with the "r". So I asked him to write it down on a piece of paper.
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