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Yellowsail - Be There or Be Square

Be There or Be Square

John in Omaha, Nebraska, wonders about a phrase that encourages someone to attend an event or risk being left out or feeling uncool: be there or be square. Don’t fall for the fake etymology about people wearing boxes on their heads! Ditto for...

Bushwacking is Forging New Paths

We spoke with a listener about the German word querfeldein, or literally “diagonally into the field,” which he used to describe an informal route he and his wife had taken while out for a walk. Many other listeners chimed in with...

Puzzling POSSLQ

POSSLQ was devised by a worker at the U.S. Census Bureau as an acronym for Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters or Partner of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters. Pronounced “possle-cue,” this term caught on briefly in the...

Anagrammatic Book Titles Quiz

Quiz Guy John Chaneski is pondering books with titles that include an anagram. For example, what might you call Stephen Hawking’s heavy coffee-table book about people’s attempts over the centuries to get enough roughage in their diet...

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