{"items": [{"author": "Margaret", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616696373402", "anchor": "fb-616696373402", "service": "fb", "text": "Many folks use an asterisk, as well, to specify inclusion of all terms in those \"families,\" too: veg*n, trans*.", "timestamp": "1371470290"}, {"author": "Miles", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616701328472", "anchor": "fb-616701328472", "service": "fb", "text": "I don't think I've ever seen the * approach before. Interesting. The abbreviation approach seems to suggest a bigger envelope to me \u2014 the broader community of veg(es?) vs. a term which carries the two separate veg*n communities.", "timestamp": "1371475350"}, {"author": "Jillian", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616701368392", "anchor": "fb-616701368392", "service": "fb", "text": "alumn*", "timestamp": "1371475382"}, {"author": "Richard", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616703069982", "anchor": "fb-616703069982", "service": "fb", "text": "I use \"alum\" all the time at school. In addition to avoiding distinctions, it's useful because there's so much confusion about the four Latin possibilities, how to spell and pronounce them, and what they each mean.", "timestamp": "1371476577"}, {"author": "Max", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616703484152", "anchor": "fb-616703484152", "service": "fb", "text": "* is especially common with trans *, since there are a lot of gender variations folded in under that label.", "timestamp": "1371476858"}, {"author": "BDan", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616725944142", "anchor": "fb-616725944142", "service": "fb", "text": "I recently found my Swarthmore College Young Alumni Handbook, which contains the following gem of a paragraph:
'About that term \"alum\"--you'll see it in College publications and other communications from Swarthmore. We're well aware that the proper Latin usage is \"alumna\" and \"alumnae\" for singular and plural women, and \"alumnus\" and \"alumni\" for singular and plural men. However, with apologies to purists, we usually compromise with \"alum\" because it's both short and gender-neutral.'
Of course, they appear to have ignored this for the actual title of the booklet.", "timestamp": "1371483161"}, {"author": "Jillian", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616726103822", "anchor": "fb-616726103822", "service": "fb", "text": "Well, \"Alum Handbook\" sounds more alchemical than they were probably going for.", "timestamp": "1371483280"}, {"author": "Jillian", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616726178672", "anchor": "fb-616726178672", "service": "fb", "text": "Also: *What* Young Alumni Handbook? Did this get discontinued between when you graduated and when I graduated?", "timestamp": "1371483329"}, {"author": "Miles", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616726473082", "anchor": "fb-616726473082", "service": "fb", "text": "I haven't heard of this handbook either.", "timestamp": "1371483503"}, {"author": "BDan", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616729611792", "anchor": "fb-616729611792", "service": "fb", "text": "Hm, maybe they did. It's the kind of thing that they might have just decided to put online in some fashion; I don't think there was as much information on the alumni section of the website back in 2003.", "timestamp": "1371485363"}, {"author": "Ken", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616733000002", "anchor": "fb-616733000002", "service": "fb", "text": "It gets my goat to see the false abbreviation \"alumn\" and \"alumns\". Sigh.", "timestamp": "1371486746"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616735185622", "anchor": "fb-616735185622", "service": "fb", "text": "@Jillian: a \"Young Alumni Handbook\" is referenced in an Alumni Relations Office ad in the 1999 Halcyon:
'''
You're already a lifetime member (no dues!) and look at the free perks \u2014 a Young Alumni Handbook that you'll get later this summer (complete with free coupon for an alumni event), the award-winning Swarthmore College Bulletin four times a year, and a colorful College calendar to impress your friends and help keep you organized. You'll also get invitations to lively events on and off campus.
'''
http://archive.org/.../halcyon19.../halcyon1999unse_djvu.txt", "timestamp": "1371487880"}, {"author": "Stavros", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/616695575002?comment_id=616744966022", "anchor": "fb-616744966022", "service": "fb", "text": "While it is never my intention to leave anything out, the use of the \"*\" to signify \"inclusion\" bothers me somehow.", "timestamp": "1371494266"}]}