The Grammys (grabbed its youngest TV audience since 2004 as young fans tuned in to watch performances by Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. Beliebers thought their teen idol was robbed of an award, losing to Esperanza Spalding in the Best New Artist... Read the rest of this post

Post-Super Bowl 'Glee' (reaped the benefits of prime placement, scoring the largest audience the show has ever seen. Nearly 27 million viewers tuned in for the special football/"Thriller" themed episode, which may or may not have contained a... Read the rest of this post

Look for an "American Idol" (greatest hits album to drop on March 15, featuring popular singles from stars that got their start on the show — Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, and more…though unfortunately missing is Jennifer... Read the rest of this post

Mattel partners with General Mills (to include exclusive Hot Wheels pullback racers in boxes of five of its popular kids' cereals — its first such deal in five years. Each box also includes a code for kids to access the Hot Wheels Racing Circuit... Read the rest of this post

"Glee" star Matthew Morrison's (debut album gets a thumbs up from his costars, who compare his musical style to Justin Timberlake's. Fox is planning heavy "Glee" promotion during the Super Bowl, with Lea Michele performing at the game and a new... Read the rest of this post

I’m an unapologetic GLEEk.  Like a lot of adult fans, I think I follow the show so closely because I’m a frustrated band/drama/choir geek from back in high school.  I couldn’t play an instrument, I couldn’t act, and I most certainly couldn’t sing.  But, dang, if I didn’t hang out with that group, wishing that I had some shred of talent.  So for people like me, there’s GLEE.

Naturally, though, young adult literature caught on to this segment of high school society way before the show was born.  Some of my personal favorites (yes, I’ve read them all) include ENTHUSIASM by Polly Shulman, NO MORE DEAD DOGS by Gordon Korman, and the hilariously raunchy CASTRATION CELEBRATION by Jake Wizner.  And this list wouldn’t be complete, of course, without mentioning E. Lockhart‘s spot-on DRAMARAMA.  If you haven’t read these yet…well…then I worry about your GLEEk cred.  Pick them up today.

I also want to tell you about two upcoming books that’ll appeal to the teen GLEEks you work with (and your inner GLEEk, of course):

RIVAL by Sara Bennett Wealer

In the midst of competing against each other at a singing competition, two ex-friends try to figure out where their relationship went wrong. (On-sale 2.15.11)

WITHERING TIGHTS by Louise Rennison (Note: this cover is from the UK version)

From the author of the series The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, comes a new series about 14-year-old Tallulah who attends a summer performing arts program. (On-sale 6.28.11)

And don’t forget: there’ll be a new GLEE episode this Sunday, February 6th.  GLEEk out!

~Laura

'American Idol' without Simon (takes a ratings hit, particularly with young adults, but keeps on kicking overall as the most watched show on both Wednesday and its new time slot on Thursday night. So will the  "age of niceness" reigned by Jennifer... Read the rest of this post

'Social Network' and 'Glee' dominate Golden Globes (giving Best Supporting Actor Chris Colfer, aka Glee's "Kurt", the chance to make this awesome heartfelt dedication "to the kids our show celebrates." Meanwhile, that same night on the Disney... Read the rest of this post

Has the term 'hipster' lost all meaning? (A mysterious San Francisco startup named after the demo that dare not speak its name generates early buzz by fueling the ongoing debate. As for where teens tread online, the Alloy Digital Network holds on... Read the rest of this post

'Harry Potter' makes more box office magic than ever before (the first half of the finale scored the franchise's biggest opening-weekend yet [$125 million in the US alone], thanks largely to loyal fans who have grown up with the Hogwarts crew and... Read the rest of this post

FDA set to ban caffeinated alcoholic drinks (in a response to widespread criticism and college campus bans of the "adult" energy concoctions on the grounds that they're dangerous, while the makers of Four Loko have announced they'll remove the... Read the rest of this post

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Editor’s note: I love being right. I really, really love it. In July, I guessed that “refudiate” would be named Word of the Year, and TA-DAH! I was right. What Paul the Octopus was to the FIFA World Cup, I am to WOTY (may he rest in peace). But that’s enough about me because what’s really important is that…

Refudiate

has been named the New Oxford American Dictionary’s 2010 Word of the Year!

refudiate verb used loosely to mean “reject”: she called on them to refudiate the proposal to build a mosque.
[origin — blend of refute and repudiate]

Now, does that mean that “refudiate” has been added to the New Oxford American Dictionary? No it does not. Currently, there are no definite plans to include “refudiate” in the NOAD, the OED, or any of our other dictionaries. If you are interested in the most recent additions to the NOAD, you can read about them here. We have many dictionary programs, and each team of lexicographers carefully tracks the evolution of the English language. If a word becomes common enough (as did last year’s WOTY, unfriend), they will consider adding it to one (or several) of the dictionaries we publish. As for “refudiate,” well, I’m not yet sure that it will be includiated.

Refudiate: A Historical Perspective

An unquestionable buzzword in 2010, the word refudiate instantly evokes the name of Sarah Palin, who tweeted her way into a flurry of media activity when she used the word in certain statements posted on Twitter. Critics pounced on Palin, lampooning what they saw as nonsensical vocabulary and speculating on whether she meant “refute” or “repudiate.”

From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used “refudiate,” we have concluded that neither “refute” nor “repudiate” seems consistently precise, and that “refudiate” more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of “reject.”

Although Palin is likely to be forever branded with the coinage of “refudiate,” she is by no means the first person to speak or write it—just as Warren G. Harding was not the first to use the word normalcy when he ran his 1920 presidential campaign under the slogan “A return to normalcy.” But Harding was a political celebrity, as Palin is now, and his critics spared no ridicule for his supposedly ignorant mangling of the correct word “normality.”

The Short List

In alphabetical order, here are our top ten finalists for the 2010 Word of the Year selection: