This will be the last post on EngagingPlaces.net for the year.  With the holidays, I typically take a two week break from blogging, unless some important news comes up that just can’t wait.  I’ll be posting again on Wednesday, January 4 with the goal to maintain 2-4 posts weekly for 2013.  Thanks to everyone who visited and commented in this inaugural year of the blog, and for your kind comments at conferences and via email.

Historic and cultural organizations are undergoing tremendous change, so you’ll be delighted to know that “volatility” has been named the Web of Language Word of the Year for 2011.  Were they thinking of us?  How did they know?   Dennis Baron, English professor at the University of Illinois and author of the Web of Language blog, shares his thoughts about volatility and other words of the year, including squeezed middle, truthiness, retweet, tergiversate, and bunga-bunga on the Visual Thesaurus blog (an online thesaurus that I find increasingly useful for my writing).  How many of those words did you recognize?

Best wishes for the holidays and 2012 (just remember, next year is a new year, thank goodness).