Readers of Emma Donoghue's Room may have wondered how her five-year-old narrator fails to understand the word "stable" when applied to a patient's condition, yet is quite capable of transcribing words such as "catatonic".
He was capable of clever word-play and advanced rhetorical devices, but he was prone to repetition of a number of words and phrases.
It was touching, and it was also good listening, because with her intelligence and sensitivity, she was more than capable of putting words to the moment and of deflecting insensitive remarks with a sharp wit instead of outrage.
It was a huge hit, proving to Tynan that Simpson was no "flash in the pen, but a true lord of language, capable of using words with the sublime, outrageous authority of Humpty Dumpty".
Doreen Plotkowski, owner of Casa La Parrot in Grand Rapids, told WABC that African gray parrots typically vocalize phrases they've heard many times, but the birds also are capable of using words they've heard on only a few occasions.
All my life I've loved the company of my fellow hacks more than drink and drugs even, but I was amazed how the addition of the word "fashion" in front of "journalist" instantly transformed a potential fun new friend into a suck-uppy bore entirely capable of using words like "genius" about a blouse.
Let it be said at once that Vladimir Putin is capable of uttering words of sharp commonsense on some issues; that American policy on Iran is dangerous; and that missile deployment in central Europe is a nonsensical move that has already caused more trouble than it can possibly be worth.
National Public Radio ran a story on All Things Considered: "Alex the Parrot, an Apt Student, Passes Away". ATC's host, Melissa Block, said, "Alex shattered the notion that parrots are only capable of mimicking words". Diane Sawyer did a two-and-a-half-minute segment on ABC's Good Morning America-long for morning television, I'm told.
When Chrome was launched the dominant browser was Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), with a 68% share it is now down to just 25%.It is only 20 years since Mosaic, the first browser capable of combining words and images in a single page, was made available.
