Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture...
Martha reviews the new book, Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Russell Rich, a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to...
misery memoir n.— «Last monday, the mother of Constance Briscoe lost the libel action she had brought against her daughter for the publication of Ugly, Briscoe’s memoir of her upbringing of neglect and abuse. The case was both astonishing...
wovit n.— «Years after Zimbabwe’s independence, President Robert Mugabe declares war on the white farmers, causing many to be killed along with their families and black supporters at the hands of squatting War Vets or “wovits” as they are...
shack-wacky
adj.— «I’m going shack-wacky and must get away from here, even if it’s only for a day or so.» —by LaVonne Telshaw Camp Lingering Fever: A World War II Nurse’s Memoir , 1997. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
fart in a mitten n.— «Sure sounds funny to the wife and me to hear our grandchildren spittin’ out the Portuguese to one another and them no bigger than a fart in a mitten.» —by Alden Nowlan Various Persons Named Kevin O’Brien: A...
