Marlene in Indianapolis grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula using pank to mean pat, tamp, or firm something down, from snow on a ski hill to teased hair before a blast of Aqua Net. The verb is especially associated with the Upper Peninsula of...
Creative communication in a noisy world! Writing a clever 140-character tweet isn’t easy. But you know what’s even more impressive? Working all 26 letters of the alphabet into just one sentence! The term for that type of sentence is...
An election official in Arcata, California, wonders how the “/” symbol should be pronounced on ballots for the visually impaired. The symbol is becoming more and more popular as a kind of conjunction. In the U.K., they call it a stroke...
Jennifer from Traverse City, Michigan, asks about using reef to mean applying a lot of force or torque, as in reefing on a stuck window or stubborn jar. This regional verb likely comes from the sailing use of reef, to reduce a sail by taking in part...
Remember a few years ago when Amazon introduced that mysterious device called a Kindle? People worried that electronic readers would replace traditional books. Turns out the death of the hardcover was greatly exaggerated. Also, the expression...
What do you call a guy with a bald pate? A chrome dome? Maybe the lucky fellow is sporting a solar panel for a sex machine. Also, which would you rather open: a can of worms or Pandora’s box? Plus, ordinary vs. ornery, versing vs. versus...