Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a word game full of Colbertisms, in honor of how comedian Stephen Colbert pronounces his own name, with a silent “T” at the end. Why not drop the “T” off all words ending in “RT”? This...
One of comedian Megan Amram’s hilarious tweets made Martha wonder about how M&M’s got their name. In 1940, Forrest Mars and an heir to the Hershey fortune, Bruce Murrie, created a candy similar to the European chocolates called...
Which is correct: use or utilize? The answer depends on the context. The word utilize carries an additional shade of meaning, suggesting that you’re using something in a way it’s not ordinarily employed. For example, you would use a...
Is it fussy and pretentious to use the word whom instead of who? If you think so, you’ll be heartened by writer Calvin Trillin’s observation on the difference between whom and who: “As far as I’m concerned, whom is a word...
The idiom to have a wild hair, which dates to the 50’s, means you’re itching to do something. It’s pretty literal: just think about those itchy stray hairs under your collar after a haircut. This is part of a complete episode.
Nancy Friedman’s blog Fritinancy is a great source of information about how products get their names. For example, the names Twitch and Jitter were rejected before the creators of Twitter finally settled on the well-known moniker. This is part...