Everyone knows old ones, but what about modern proverbs? Here’s an aphorism attributed to William Gibson: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed.” The hosts discuss some others. This is part of a...
Scott in Kokomo, Indiana, noticed his daughter’s school using rubric for a grading grid. The word goes back to a Latin word for “red,” and to red ochre used in manuscripts for headings and directions that needed to stand out. In Christian texts...
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...
A Fort Worth listener wonders about a claim she saw in a 1930s magazine. The article said that traditionally, a picket line was an area between the front lines of two opposing armies where soldiers might safely venture out to pick berries without...
Carol in Lawrenceville, Georgia, wonders whether nails on a chalkboard will keep its skin-crawling force as classrooms trade blackboards for whiteboards. The question came about via a Peter Sellers Pink Panther movie scene with metallic fingernails...
For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain’s new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as “dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest...