Over on Separated by a Common Language, Lynne Murphy has her own trans-Atlantic twist on the usual Word of the Year selections. Make your nominations for "Best American to British import" and "Best British to American import."

The literary world lost Michael Crichton and Studs Terkel in recent days. Watch interviews with both Crichton and Terkel on the Charlie Rose Show.

On OUPblog (the official blog of Oxford University Press), Ben Zimmer sings the praises of the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee.

Bill Brohaugh is the author of Everything You Know About English Is Wrong, and he has an enjoyable blog of the same name. He calls it "cantankerous commentary on what we speak and why we speak it."

On Noah Webster's 250th birthday, Joshua Kendall explains how he "united America with his words." Kendall and others are taking part in celebrations at Yale University, Webster's alma mater.

On Word Face-Off you can look at different word-based analyses of the second presidential debate between McCain and Obama.