Jack Shepherd – Medium

Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

Wordle Starter Words for Dangerous Troublemakers

Let’s see if we can make Wordlebot cry.

8 min readApr 3, 2024

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A Wordlebot grid with the words: SNASH / FEEZE / OUPHE

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

The Bewitching Magic of the “Ass” Intensifier

An ode to the anal emphatic.

4 min readMar 14, 2024

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The Bewitching Magic of the “Ass” Intensifier

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

What to Do When You’ve “Got the Morbs”

“Got the morbs” shows up to delight us every couple of years, but the dictionary where it comes from is a treasure trove.

4 min readMar 6, 2024

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What to Do When You’ve “Got the Morbs”

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

These Common Words Are the Result of a Hilarious Misunderstanding

I’m calling them “Splittybits.” Arrest me if you want to.

5 min readFeb 15, 2024

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These Common Words Are the Result of a Hilarious Misunderstanding

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

These Lovely “Fossil Words” Are Hiding in Plain Sight

Wend, kith, vim … shebang!

5 min readFeb 5, 2024

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38

These Lovely “Fossil Words” Are Hiding in Plain Sight

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

Taking Stock of The Oxford Comma Wars

The good, the bad and the grammatically ambiguous.

6 min readJan 22, 2024

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THE OXFORD COMMA WARS

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

The Surprising Animals Who Say Their Own Names

Or why the Kittiwake and the Zyzzyx won’t stop talking about themselves.

4 min readJan 9, 2024

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The Surprising Animals Who Say Their Own Names

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

The Astonishing Origins of 6 Common Compound Words

The “Cob” in “Cobweb,” the “Hodge” in “Hodgepodge,” and more lovely old oddities that still cling to life in compounds.

6 min readDec 20, 2023

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The Astonishing Origins of 6 Common Compound Words

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

In Search of the Perfect Garden Path Sentence

Making sense (and nonsense) out of the world’s most devious sentences.

5 min readDec 8, 2023

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9

In Search of the Perfect Garden Path Sentence

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Jack Shepherd
in
Cellar Door

“Carpe Diem” Doesn’t Mean “Seize the Day”

In some fairly important ways — it means just the opposite.

6 min readNov 8, 2023

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“Carpe Diem” Doesn’t Mean “Seize the Day”

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Jack Shepherd

Jack Shepherd

I have a newsletter about crossword puzzles and a podcast about rom-coms. Formerly editorial director @BuzzFeed. Email: JackAShepherd at gmail

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