OMG, text messaging! It’s destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into illiterates. It’s probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, Txting: The Gr8 Db8, David Crystal offers a...
Googie n.— «The sign, erected sometime during the 1950s, is an example of what is called “Googie,” an exaggerated Jetsons-style of architecture named after a Los Angeles coffee shop.» —“After 50-year run, sign will be...
Howdy and happy new year! It's another newsletter from "A Way with Words." Last week there was no newsletter as we celebrated the new year by hauling our dictionaries out of the low-hanging winter sun. We wish they were...
capping n.— «Taghizadeh allegedly paid people to bring him potential litigants to sue auto insurance companies—an illegal practice known as “capping,” said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Alker of the Automobile...
Say you have a particularly rambunctious child. Okay, a little hellion. Is it proper to describe the little devil as a holy terror? Or might it be more correct and more logical to call him an unholy terror? A Los Angeles caller thinks it’s the...
platinum triangle n.— «He knows of at least 20 20,000-plus square-foot homes under construction or about to break ground in what he called the “platinum triangle” of wealthy areas in Los Angeles County: Beverly Hills, Bel-Air...