Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scribes sometimes added a curse to the first page of those books that was supposed to keep thieves away — and some were as vicious as...
Grant responds to a voicemail from Doug in Louisville, Kentucky, who asks whether our phone’s autocomplete function will affect the way we talk and write. The answer is yes, partly because of Markov chains, or models describing a sequence of...
stick n.— «“The Stick”—the physical bartop itself. “Get behind the stick” means its time for a barkeep to go to work.» —“Booze: Bar Lingo” by Mark Chasteen Velocity Weekly (Louisville, Kentucky) Aug. 12...
hat catcher n.— «His interest in the fire department was another thing Elmore Tonini shared with his father: Both were well-known “hat catchers”—a term for a fan of the fire department.» —“Elmore Tonini, church supply...