In Greek myth, the sirens were women with the bodies of birds whose song was so alluring that it enticed men to their death. In the early 19th century, French engineer and physicist Charles Cagniard de la Tour built a device that sent blasts of air...
Online recaps of Mad Men or Breaking Bad can be as much fun as the shows themselves. So why not recap classic literature — like, say, Dante’s Inferno? A literary website is doing just that. And, you’ve heard about the First World and the Third World...
Mad money is the emergency cash a woman tucked away to get home safely if an evening out went badly. These days, it’s largely been replaced by cell phones. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Mad Money” Hello, you have A Way with...
What does it mean to be gorked or crimped? These slang terms for “high on drugs” are used by hospital and emergency medical services workers to help cope with the stress of such traumatic work and to build solidarity among co-workers. This is part...
shake and bake n.— «Some people lay down on the floor to get below the smoke. Others began shaking open their emergency rescue shelters. Made of a reflective material, the tents are a last resort. Some firefighters ghoulishly refer to them as “the...
cohort v.— «As patients entered, they were “cohorted,” in medical lingo, meaning that they were separated from the general population and quarantined in a 40-foot hallway (normally a psychiatric emergency area), lined with molded plastic chairs...

