Sarah Smarsh, author of Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, advises that although would-be writers should read extensively, it’s even more important to listen intensely. This is part of a complete...
Nancy in Panama City Beach, Florida, remembers that as a girl, whenever she asked why her mother was looking at her, her mother would respond, “Well, can’t the cat look at the queen?” This phrase goes all the way back to the mid-16th century. A 1652...
The class of 2014 is totally hooked into the future, which is why they’re writing Class of 2K14 in their Snapchats. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Class of 2K14” So the class of 2014, the kids who are graduating this year from...
Pat in San Diego grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with a Boston-area accent that people still notice even when no obvious “r” is involved. The accent’s hallmark is non-rhoticity: after certain vowels, the “r” may be weakened, changed, or...
Blueblood, a term often used to refer to WASPy or patrician folks, goes back to the 1700s and the Spanish term sangre azul. It described the class of people who never had to work outside or expose themselves to the sun, so blue veins would show...
What is a hipster? Is it an insult to call someone a hipster, even if they’re, well, a hipster? Do hipsters identify themselves as hipsters? Grant traces the label from 1960s counterculture to today’s skinny-jeaned Brooklyn paradox. This is part of...