Yeah, the one she was reading was about language.
Ah yep, that one's online... woops linked to it upthread. I really enjoyed that one - I majored in linguistics and the whole pre- vs. de-scriptivism thing is certainly of interest to me.
Maybe a key thing to remember if you do look at either of those collections of his essays is that they are things like book reviews (as in the case of that one) or commissioned event-coverage or talks. I really just read them for the laughs - although there's plenty of stuff that did provoke me to think things through further.
Mind you, his digressional, footnote-heavy writing style does seem more like how European deconstructionists are stereotyped, though, eh. When I'm in the wrong mood I just get fed up.