Authors often go through several working titles before settling on one. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Bookshop|Amazon) was originally Trimalchio in West Egg, Trimalchio being an ostentatious nouveau riche character in an ancient Roman work...
In her 1958 memoir Beloved Infidel, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lover Sheilah Graham recalls the famous author’s distaste for exclamation points, the use of which he compared to “laughing at your own joke.” Some have proposed that...
Great news! You have a 50 percent chance of getting all of the answers to Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s “Band or Short Story?” puzzle. For example, is “My Life with The Thrill Kill Kult” an electronic industrial rock band or...
There’s no difference in meaning between center and centre, but there is an interesting story behind the change in spelling. In the early 19th century, independence-minded lexicographer Noah Webster campaigned for a new American orthography...
Crescendo is not the high point of a sound, at least in the strict musical sense. Linda from Fort Worth, Texas, a retired symphony bassoonist, notes that a crescendo is the increase in volume or intensity, whether written out, abbreviated, or shown...
Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture...
