How do you pronounce the name of the state Nevada? Steven, a Nevada native now living in Baltimore, Maryland, says he’s forever encountering people who pronounce the name of his home state incorrectly, with an ah sound in the middle. The a in...
A 50-something boss in Reno, Nevada, wants suggestions on speaking with and writing for his younger co-workers. When does your own communication style make you sound out-of-date, and when does using younger folks’ slang make you sound like...
Everyone knows you don’t start a sentence with but. But why? Also, how voice recognition technology is changing the way we think and write and what English sounds like to foreigners. Plus, where cockamamie comes from, oddly translated movie...
Back in 1867 a newspaper in Nevada used the verb pungle to lovely effect: “All night the clouds pungled their fleecy treasure.” This is part of a complete episode.
downwinder n.— «Nuclear testing in Nevada during the 1950s and 1960s released radiation into the atmosphere that settled in states far away from the original test site. Researchers determined that certain elements of this fallout, such as...
cow county n.— «The Nevada Senate consisted of one senator from each of the 17 counties even though the vast majority of the population was, as now, in just Clark and Washoe counties. The so-called “cow counties,” the rurals...