Deb in Lombard, Illinois, shared an expression her grandmother used when irritated with someone: Hey, buddy, walk east till your hat floats! In other words, it’s the same ill-willed advice as go play in traffic! This is part of a complete...
National Book Award winner Barry Lopez had wise advice for young writers. First, read widely and follow your curiosity. Second, travel or learn a foreign language. And third, find out what you truly believe, because if you’re not writing from...
In The Timbuktu Review, travel writer Wayne Curtis offers excellent advice about how to resist cliches when writing about visiting a new place. This is part of a complete episode.
Judy from Huntsville, Alabama, recalls her stepmother’s words of encouragement: He that hath a horn to toot and tooteth it not, the same shall not be tooted. This faux-formal bit of advice goes back at least to the 1850s. A variation goes:...
Images of birds flutter inside lots of English words and phrases, from “nest egg” and “pecking order,” to proverbs from around the world—including a lovely Spanish saying about how birds sense light just before dawn. Plus...
A woman in Mammoth Lakes, California, says her father used to offer this advice: “In promulgating your esoteric cogitations or articulating your superficial sentimentalities, beware of preposterous ponderosities. In other words, don’t...