How do actors bring Shakespeare’s lines to life so that modern audiences immediately understand the text? One way is to emphasize the names of people and places at certain points. That technique is called billboarding. And: Anyone for an...
Centuries ago, monks who took a vow of silence developed their own hand signs, with hundreds of gestures, that are still in use today. Plus, how do speakers of different languages distinguish similar shades and tints of colors such as red, yellow...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski brings a bunch of brain teasers that he calls “Family Secrets.” It’s inspired by the hit song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the Disney film Encanto. What about the secrets other families...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski imagines what might have happened if some favorite movie plots ended up going in exactly the opposite direction. For example, suppose Cary Grant is chased by good guys and bad guys, but instead of ending up at a national...
The artists at Walt Disney Studios considered a long list of possible characters before settling upon the final seven dwarves in the Snow White movie. Also-rans included Nifty, Dirty, Goopy, Wheezy, and Chesty. Quiz Guy John Chaneski has created a...
How many different ways are there to say you have a baby on the way? You can say you’re pregnant, great with child, clucky, awkward, eating for two, lumpy, or swallowed a pumpkin seed? • The story behind the word...