Evelyn in Wilmington, North Carolina, says that when she and her older sister were sassy to their parents, her mother would say either You’re getting too big for your britches or I’m going to bring you down a buttonhole lower. The former...
Actors use the term billboarding to denote the technique of giving extra emphasis to a word or phrase. That’s just one of the many bits of inside information from Thinking Shakespeare by Barry Edelstein, artistic director at San Diego’s...
A caller from coastal North Carolina says that in her part of the country, people use the word mommicked to mean flustered or deeply frustrated. It derives from mammock, which means to tear or muddle, and was used that way in Shakespeare’s...
The former student of a Spanish teacher in Valdosta, Georgia, will soon give birth in her homeland, the Czech Republic, one of several countries that have strict naming laws. The mother-to-be would like to name her son Lisandro, but needs official...
As we mentioned earlier, knock-knock jokes were once a fad sweeping the nation. What we didn’t mention is that there are quite a few Shakespearean knock-knock jokes. Such as: Knock-Knock. Who’s there? Et. Et who? Et who, Brute? (Hey...
A sea change is a profound transformation, although some people erroneously use it to mean a slight shift, as when winds change direction on the surface of the ocean. In reality, the term refers to the kind of change effected on something submerged...