Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: “Don’t call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river.” And this truism from Zanzibar: “When two elephants...
Welcome to another edition of the A Way with Words newsletter. This week we talked about "see a man about a horse," one of the most popular search terms that brings people to our web site. Who woulda thunk it? And, of course, we gave...
Hiya, folks. It's another newsletter from A Way with Words! Aside from flagellating ourselves for the homophonic error in last week's newsletter (error is always in a hurry), we also aired a radio show and posted a minicast. The topics on...
You’ve just read a terrific paperback novel. Would you feel any differently about it if you’d the same words on the glowing screen of an electronic book? Martha and Grant discuss the social and psychological implications of books that run on...
mis lit n.— «Nowadays, there is a mania for memoirs, and in fact there are so many of them that they have come to be called in some quarters “mis lit” (misery literature).» —“Larry McMurtry on Cormac, Heaven’s Gate, and his favorite librarian” by...
street money n.— «Street money is the name for cash given to party committeemen and women who hand out literature and drum up the vote on primary and election days. It comes from the candidates and is dispensed to the party’s 69 ward leaders who...
