Poet Brian Bilston’s “Index of Discarded First Lines” leaves so much intriguingly unsaid, and if nothing else, offers great possibilities for writing prompts. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Bilston’s...
Why do we write the word I as a capital letter when using it to refer to ourselves? Is English the only language that capitalizes the first person singular pronoun? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why is the Pronoun...
Crossword-puzzle constructors often employ words with a vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel pattern, or VCCV. That’s the cruciverbal inspiration Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s VCCV puzzle. For example, if the clue is teen woe, what’s the four-letter answer...
If you want to be a better writer, try skipping today’s bestsellers, and read one from the 1930’s instead. Or read something besides fiction in order to find your own metaphors and perspective. Plus, just because a city’s name...
Pangrams, or statements that include every letter of the alphabet, are collected on Twitter at @PangramTweets, and include such colorful lines as, “I always feel like the clerk at the liquor store is judging me when she has to get a moving box...
Considering that the first alphabet goes back as far as 1600 BC, it’s pretty remarkable how little has changed. Robert Fradkin, a classics professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert Fradkin illustrates this point with helpful...