My husband and I recently met a new VCU graduate. The young man is a native of southern Sudan and one of the Lost Boys. Today he is an American citizen and a registered voter, eager for his voice to be heard. The story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is an incredible tale of suffering and human endurance. During the Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) nearly 30,000 children were orphaned or displaced when Islamist government forces descended upon and brutally wiped out Christian villages in southern Sudan. Young boys were able to escape into surrounding jungles. Others were away tending crops or herds when the pillaging occurred. Sadly, their sisters were rarely so fortunate.

The dwindling number of grammatical sticklers in the English-speaking world suffered a shock over the weekend when they learned that Birmingham, England, has formally done away with the possessive apostrophe on street signs. The precipitating occasion was a debate over whether to apostrophize the suburb of Kings Heath—or King’s Heath, as the sticklers would have it. Since the heath no longer belonged to the king, the reasoning went, the apostrophe no longer obtained.

Barack Obama made history Jan. 20, but let’s look at the history of some of that day’s words . . . Such as blunder. Hey, in fairness to Chief Justice John Roberts, we’d all be nervous reciting anything, let alone the presidential oath, in front of millions of people. Still, bobbling a few words is a “blunder,“ or a clumsy mistake. The Old Norse blunda meant to shut the eyes, so we see a connection to our modern usage, where “blunder” (as a verb) can mean to move in a clumsy manner.