If you catch your blue jeans on a nail, you may find yourself with a winklehawk. This term, adapted into English from Dutch, means “an L-shaped tear in a piece of fabric.” And: What’s your relationship with the books on your...
Bethany in Ithaca, New York, wants a word that sums up a way she’s feeling lately: being desperately lonely, but also reveling in her solitude. She’s toying with her own coinage based on Greek and Latin roots having to do with...
Writer Anne Lamott memorably compared librarians to trail guides, leading people through the forest of shelves and aisles. This is part of a complete episode.
Bathroom walls, missing graffiti, and social media. Where have all the cute quips on bathroom stalls gone? We wonder about the apparent decline of restroom graffiti. Are people saving their witticisms for Twitter and Facebook? And: If there were a...
Shinrin-yoku, the Japanese term for walking around in the woods that literally means “a forest bath” is a beautiful descriptor for what a hike should be—an opportunity to stroll through nature and wash off the stress of everyday life...
heli-mulching n.— «Rice straw dropped from a heavy-lift helicopter rained down like snow Monday on fire-blackened forest land north of Oroville in an effort to control erosion. The process, known as “heli-mulching,” is set to continue...