Writers and where they do their best creative work. A new book on Geoffrey Chaucer describes the dark, cramped, smelly room where he wrote his early work. Which raises the question: What kind of space do you need to produce your best writing...
Pico Iyer’s piece in the Los Angeles Times is a testament to the value of long sentences in our age of tweets and abbrevs. This is part of a complete episode.
Remember when the expression “reading a book” meant, well, actually reading a book? Martha and Grant discuss a Los Angeles Times series about how electronic devices are changing the way we read. This is part of a complete episode.
Grant talks about the lingo of criminals from 1930s. Here are more examples from police reporter Ben Kendall’s 1931 Los Angeles Times article, “Underworld ‘Lingo’ Brought Up-to-Date.” This is part of a complete episode.
anticipointment n.— «It’s what I call “anticipointment.” […] You can’t make a promise and then have people feel you broke it, or you’re worse off than when you started. So now they just need to live up to it.» —“B...
spike the lens v. phr.— «In the final moments of the Munchkin Land scene, in which Glinda the good witch (played by Billie Burke) instructs Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road, it’s easy to spot young Priscilla, near Burke, as the...