If you’ve never dined on funistrada, braised trake, or buttered ermal, you’re not missing out, nor are you alone. All of those are made-up food names that were part of a 1972 survey given to thousands of members of the U.S. military to determine their food preferences. These three names were part of a list of 378 real food names; the fake were just in there to test whether the servicemembers were paying attention. Most responded that they’d never heard of those three, but a few said they had, and in fact ranked funistrada preferable to lima beans. The names sound somewhat plausible, though, which recalls studies of the bouba-kiki effect, which refers to the way people tend to associate certain sounds with certain ideas. In the case of the bouba-kiki effect, they associated the nonsense word bouba with round, curvy shapes and the nonsense word kiki with more pointed, spiky shapes. This is part of a complete episode.
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
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