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...
Shelly from Dallas grew up calling the shared center turn lane the chicken lane, a term that fits the unnerving possibility of two drivers entering it from opposite directions for left turns. The image comes from the game of chicken, in which two...
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...
We have collective nouns for animals, like “a gaggle of geese,” “a pride of lions,” and “an exaltation of larks.” So why not collective nouns for plants? How about a “greasing of palms,” or a...
Caitlin from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, grew up calling the children’s message-passing game Whisper Down the Lane, but classmates knew it as Whisper Down the Alley, Telephone, or Broken Telephone. No firm U.S. regional boundary is known, although...
Some teachers are using a controversial tactic to get young students reading: They let their pupils choose which books to read for class. Does it work? Also, should that line at the grocery store checkout read 15 items or less or fewer? And is the...