Family surnames often derive from occupations, locations, or physical characteristics, so Quiz Guy John Chaneski has crafted a puzzle about fictitious origins of people’s last names. For example, many folks have farmers in their ancestry, but...
A Michigan biologist wonders how the Carp River in his home state got its name, considering that the river was so named long before that particular fish was introduced. I turns out, just as in the rest of the Western Hemisphere, Europeans who...
Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving...