Should cursive handwriting be taught in schools? There are compelling arguments on both sides. A handwritten letter or note may carry additional emotional power. Also, to have a yen for something means to yearn for it. It comes from a Chinese word...
What exactly is dope? Over time, it’s meant marijuana, heroin, steroids, butter, coffee, drugs given to racehorses, and myriad other substances affecting the recipient in some excitable way. The term didn’t come to mean marijuana until the ’40s, and...
What colorful language do you use to when you’re angry and tempted to use a four-letter word? There’s a difference between cursing and cussing: It takes a slow mind to curse, but an active, vibrant mind to cuss. Also, what it means to be stove up...
Anne Louise from San Diego wonders why she and a friend call wishing to see sunlight during long opera-company workdays a pipe dream. A pipe dream is “an unobtainable hope” or “an unrealistic fantasy,” and the phrase comes from opium pipes and the...
Looking for something that curls your hair, cleans your teeth, and makes childbirth a pleasure? A listener’s mother used that saying in reference to every miracle potion from WD-40 to vinegar. Grant explains that the first known version of this in...
doda n.— «Peel Regional Police would like to warn members of the public that a substance commonly known as “Doda” has been found to contain amounts of illegal opiates.…Doda is described as a greyish powder that is derived from poppy plant husks and...
