For the first nine or ten years of her life, the 18th-century abolitionist Sojourner Truth spoke only Dutch. She later used her accent to great effect in her stirring speeches. As Jeroen Dewulf, director of Dutch Studies at University of California...
Would you rather live in a world with no adjectives … or no verbs — and why? Also, who in the world is that director Alan Smithee [SMITH-ee] who made decades’ of crummy films? Turns out that if a movie director has his work wrested away...
Ever seen a great film by the director Alan Smithee? Chances are the answer is no, since Alan Smithee is a pseudonym going back to 1968 that’s used by directors who’ve had their work wrestled from them and no longer want visible credit...
Hi, all! In this week's brand-spankin'-new episode: Ever wonder what's up with the term "meteoric rise"? Don't meteors plummet? Also, "myriad" vs. "a myriad of," "enamored of" vs...
Greg Pliska, musical director for the Broadway show War Horse and our very own Quiz Guy, has a puzzle about Animal Hybrid Phrases combining two common expressions involving animals. For example, what do you get when stuffed animal stocks go down? A...
Happy Intergalactic Star Wars Day! May the 4th (Be with You)! Did we really just say that? Okay, on to our own latest episode: "Like Death Eating a Cracker" features silly ways to tell time, like Bob o’clock (8:08), Big o’clock...
