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Barbara Kingsolver’s book Demon Copperhead is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in today’s Appalachia. Martha shares memories of a long-ago visit to Kingsolver’s family farm in Virginia, where they...
Janet in Tucson, Arizona, wonders about a phrase she once saw on a business card: Fortune Favors the Audacious. It’s a translation of a saying that goes back to antiquity, with many variations, including “fortune favors the brave”...
confusopoly n.— Note: Often used (as in this article) and perhaps coined by Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert. «The goal of the people at the top now is to create what I call confusopolies. The barriers to entry to almost...
song sharking n.— «The personals are full of them; want ads promising easy fame and fortune for people with undiscovered talent. Music industry neophytes show up, audition, and receive every promise under the sun, if they put up a little...
pure play n.— «While subsidiaries of multiline insurers like UnitedHealth (Charts, Fortune 500) and WellPoint (Charts, Fortune 500) are still the biggest players in Medicaid, the “pure plays,” as they’re called, have grown...
cootie catcher n.— «Yale’s introduction to the artform, however, did come from young Japanese-American classmates with the simple construction of four-pronged fortune-tellers, or as she called them, “cootie catchers...