On our Facebook group, listeners discuss sayings that people use when they’re sitting around a campfire and smoke comes their way. Among them: I hate rabbits, I hate little white bunny rabbits, smoke follows the tenderfoot, and smoke follows...
In the 1970s, physicists predicted the discovery of two quarks called T and B for top and bottom. Some poetically-minded physicists argued that the T and B quarks should instead be called truth and beauty, but the terms top and bottom eventually won...
What makes a word beautiful? Is it merely how it sounds? Or does a word’s meaning affect its aesthetic effect? Max Beerbohm had some helpful thoughts about gondola, scrofula, and other words in his essay “The Naming of Streets.”...
The Stendhal syndrome is a term used to describe feeling overwhelmed by the beauty of a work of art. The name comes from the French writer Stendhal, who wrote about the dizzying sensation of seeing the art in Florence. It’s somewhat similar to...
Pun alert: if you have a bee in your hand, what’s in your eye? Beauty. Think about it. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Bee Pun” Grant, I have a question for you. Yes, please. If you have a bee in your hand, what...
If someone’s a dime piece or a dime, they’re mighty attractive—as in, a perfect 10 on a rating scale where 10 is the highest. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of ““Dime Piece” and “Dime” as Slang for a Perfect 10”...