Responding to our conversation about alternatives to the term mocktail, Rob in Wolcott, New York, reports on our Facebook group that he recently saw the term zero-proof drink to describe an alcohol-free beverage — a sophisticated cocktail of harissa...
A discussion on the English Language & Usage Stack Exchange about things that can still be useful even if they longer function properly, such as escalators and moving sidewalks, included several intriguing expressions involving partial failure...
Have you ever offered to foster a dog or cat, but wound up adopting instead? There’s an alliterative term for that. And when you’re on the job, do niceties like “Yes, ma’am” and “No, sir” make you sound too...
On the face of it, the expression “the proof is in the pudding” doesn’t make sense. It’s a shortening of the proverbial saying, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Pudding is an old word for sausage, and...
If you need proof that language is powerful, here’s some. Researchers at Cornell recently reported that kids are more likely to eat their veggies if they’re told the food has enticing names like “X-ray Vision Carrots” and...
One place where spelling really counts: on a job application. Martha shares some painfully funny proof. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Job Application Spelling Errors” If you think spelling doesn’t matter, think...
