Outdoor enthusiasts divide the idea of fun into three categories: Type I fun is guaranteed to be pleasant, like get-togethers with good friends, Type II fun is miserable when you’re having it, but enjoyable in retrospect, and Type III fun is...
Psychological research shows that when it comes to letters of the alphabet, people tend to like their own initials, perhaps because of a sense of ownership. This phenomenon is called the name-letter effect. This is part of a complete episode...
Someone who “looks like the wreck of Hesperus” isn’t exactly looking their best. The idiom comes from a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, inspired by an 1839 blizzard off the coast of Massachusetts that destroyed 20 ships. This is...
pregame v.— «Ms. Mayer was meeting with Mr. Kraus and Mr. Pichai to help them prepare for a meeting the next day with Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Brin and Mr. Page to discuss how the company could leverage information-sharing among Google’s many...
ghost pot n.— «The commission has purchased side-scanning radars, installed the equipment onto watermen’s boats, trained them on how to use the devices, and turned them loose in search of lost traps, also known as ghost pots...
roll rate n.— «We’re in the late stages of the financial disaster of 2008, but another crisis looms: The consumer recession. According to the Wall Street Journal, more and more credit-card holders are falling behind on their payments and...

