comic essayist The Panic Button, Canadian satirical magazine
1959-1963
story editor, producer, CBC Radio Current Affairs Toronto including
'Matinee with Pat Patterson' 1968-1971
series on linguistics 'Ideas' CBC Radio 1969
senior producer 'This Country In The Morning' with Peter Gzowski, later
with Michael Enright, and then Judy LaMarsh for CBC Radio 1971-1976
(Toronto)
comic garden advice as 'The Plant Nut' on CBC TV's 'Bob McLean Show'
1975-1976 (Toronto)
Exec. producer 'Bob McLean Show' CBC TV 1976-1977
Executive producer 'The Vancouver Show' CKVU TV, Vancouver 1977-1978
wrote and directed comedy skits on 'Morningside' with Don Harron CBC
Radio 1977-1979
directed first radio dramatization of Alice Munro's novel Lives
of Girls & Women CBC Radio 1979
television columnist Maclean's magazine 1978-79
daily television columnist Vancouver Courier 1978-1979
panelist on quiz show 'Conquest' CBC Radio, Vancouver 1979
wrote and hosted satirical news broadcast 'Large News' weekly on 'McLean
at Large' CBC TV, 1979-1980
movie reviewer on 'The Radio Show with Jack Farr' CBC Radio 1979-1989
occasional editorials 'Commentary' CBC Radio 1980-1990
occasional film reviews 'The Journal' CBC TV 1982-1987
weekly feature 'Word Clout' with host Kathryn O'Hara on 'Later The Same
Day' CBC Radio Toronto 1990-1994
panelist on word topics 'Imprint' TVO 1990-1995
columnist 'Our Home & Native Tongue' in Canadian Geographic
magazine 1995-1998
actor in five episodes of 'The Newsroom' satirical drama miniseries
CBC TV 1997-1998
standup comedy performance on April 21, 2001 before audience of 1,000
at Centrepoint Theatre in Ottawa for CBC Radio comedy series 'Madly
Off in All Directions.'
2002-2004 Extensive media appearances across Canada in and on radio, television, newpapers, and magazines. The only medium Bill did not employ to spread the word about Canadian words was smoke-signals - - - and he's working on that!
Speaking Tour of Canada 2005-2006: From Kelowna, British Columbia, to Sherbrooke, Quebec, Bill offered comic coverage of Canadian words, place names, surnames, and lively sayings, speaking to enthusiastic members of Canadian Clubs and other organizations across the length and breadth of our Dominion.
2007-2009 Speaker, Grand River Arts Festival, Dunnville. Radio, Tv and public speaking engagements to promote my back list
2010-2011 Radio and Literary Festival Appearances to promote my latest book of etymological essays "Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik" published October, 2010, including CBC Radio interviews across Canada on local stations
2011 NPR interview, Boston, Mass. National Public Radio Interview Promoting my first American publication,"Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik."
2001-2013 Writing New Columns for my 500-page website about etymology:
http://www.billcasselman.com
union
affiliations:
former ACTRA member
since 1976, acronym stands for Association of Canadian Television and
Radio Artists (resigned 2012)
12 books published:
Casselman's Canadian Words: A Comic Browse through Words & Folk Sayings Invented by Canadians 1995
1st edition 1995 Copp Clark ISBN: 0-7730-5515-0
2nd edition 1997 Little, Brown ISBN: 0-316-13350-7
3rd edition 1999 McArthur & Company, many reprints through 2006
ISBN: 1-55278-034-1
Casselmania: More Wacky Canadian Words & Sayings
1996 Little, Brown
ISBN: 0-316-13314-0
Canadian Garden Words: The Origin of Flower, Tree, and Plant
Names, both wild and domestic, entertainingly derived from their sources
in the Ancient Tongues together with Fancy Botanical Names & Why
You Shall Never Again Be Afraid To Use Them!
1997 McArthur & Company
ISBN: 0-316-13343-4
A Dictionary of Medical Derivations: The Real Meanings of Medical
Words
1998 Parthenon Publishing Group, London and New York
ISBN: 1-85070-771-5
Canadian Food Words: The Juicy Lore & Tasty Origins of Foods
That Founded a Nation
1998 McArthur & Company
1999 reprinted with new cover McArthur & Company
ISBN: 1-55278-018-X
Canadian Sayings: 1200 Folk Sayings Used by Canadians, Collected
and Annotated by Bill Casselman
1999 McArthur & Company
ISBN: 1-55278-076-7
What's in a Canadian Name?: The Origins and Meanings of Canadian
Surnames
2000 McArthur & Company
ISBN: 1-55278-141-0
Canadian Sayings 2: 1000 Folk Sayings Used by Canadians Newly
Collected and Annotated by Bill Casselman 2002 McArthur & Company
ISBN: 1-55278-272-7
Canadian Sayings 3: 1000 Folk Sayings Used by Canadians Newly
Collected and Annotated by Bill Casselman July
2004 McArthur & Company
ISBN: 1-55278-425-8
As The Canoe Tips: Comic Scenes from Canadian Life July 2005 McArthur & Company. This is the first collection of my own original funny pieces, bits of satire and nonsense.
ISBN: 1-55278-493-2
Canadian Words & Sayings July 2006
McArthur & Company, Toronto, Canada
This collection includes new sayings and classic Canadian word stories suitable for the whole family and APPROVED FOR CLASSROOM USE.
ISBN: 1-55278-569-6
Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik
A Word Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems
October 2011
This paperback collection of original short essays is my first American-published book and my first book to be available as an e-book download in several formats. 90% of the material in this 272-page paperback is available only in this book. All-new word fun from Bill Casselman and my first e-book availability.
256 pages U.S. paperback $13.95
Canadian paperback $15.99
Publisher: Adams Media, 57 Littlefield Street, Avon, Massachusetts 02322 U.S.A.
ISBN 10: 1-4405-0636-1
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-0636-9
eISBN 10: 1-44051004-0
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-1004-5
Partial Contributions to other books by Bill Casselman (William Gordon Casselman) :
1.
Article on “Canadian Folk Sayings” in
The ITP Nelson Canadian Dictionary of the English Language
ITP Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited, 1997, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
ISBN: 0-17-606591-1
2.
Essay “See You When the Ice Worms Nest Again” in
Inside Language: A Canadian Language Reader, eds. Jennifer Maclennan and John Moffat
2000
Prentice Hall Allyn and Bacon Canada, Scarborough, Ontario
ISBN: 0-13-011267-4
3.
Essay “Barrelhouse Kings: Something Barry Callaghan Left out of his Memoir” in
Barry Callaghan: Essays on his Works
ed. Priscila Uppal
Guernica Writers Series # 24,
Guernica Editions, Toronto, Canada, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1-55071-253-7
ISBN-10: 1-55071-253-5
4.
Chapter 32 “Digitariat” and Chapter 35 “Bafflegab and Gobbledygook: How Canadians Use English to Rant, to Lie, to Cheat, to Cover up Truth, and to Peddle Bafflegab” in
Readings for Technical Communication, ed. Jennifer MacLennan,
Oxford University Press Canada, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-19-542322-8
5.
Essay “A Blunt History of the Word Cunt” in
Vocabula Bound: Our Wresting, Writhing Tongue: Essays on the English Language from The Vocabula Review (online magazine about words)
ed. Robert Hartwell Fiske
Vocabula Books, Rockport, Massachusetts, USA, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9774368-6-6
freelance writings:
article on Canadian Folk Expressions in The Nelson Canadian Dictionary
1996
numerous feature articles, profiles, humour pieces, and book reviews,
in Toronto Life magazine, Toronto Star, Montreal
Gazette, Canadian Geographic magazine, etc.
biographical notes:
Please note that the first batch of my literary and broadcasting papers
will be deposited at York University library soon. These Casselman
papers include numerous pieces of biography, juvenilia, unpublished
novels, shards of my writing life, and early writings and publications
beyond those listed in the brief curriculum above.
See also: List of My Published Books, a page on this website. Click here.
Any comments, corrections, emendations, additional word lore, orders for my books?
Please email me at wordguy@shaw.ca
Bill Casselman Biography 