Need a slang term that can replace just about any noun? Try chumpie. If you’re from Philadelphia, you may already know this handy placeholder word. And there’s Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, and … The Bronx — why do we add...
Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs — a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms describes the environment in ways that sound poetic. And a mom says her son is dating someone who’s non-binary. She supports their relationship, but...
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
An idea from puzzle constructor David Ellis Dickerson inspired this week’s challenge from our Quiz Guy, John Chaneski. This game involves two-word titles of books and movies, which, when those words are reversed, still make a pretty good title...
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear, as if you’re holding an old-fashioned candlestick...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski shares a game that provides plenty of Ooos and Ahhs. It involves clues to two words, one that begins with an Ooo sound and the other with an Ahh sound. For example, if John is making a traditional Chinese tea, but messes it...