If you’re ever near a sundial, step closer and look for a message. Many sundials bear haunting, poetic inscriptions about the brevity of life. Plus, language development in toddlers: why and how little ones pick up the exclamation Uh-oh! And a...
In the acclaimed podcast S-town, journalist Brian Reed notes that sundials often bear haunting inscriptions about the brevity of life and the passage of time. Some 1,682 of them are collected in The Book of Sun-Dials, originally published in 1872 by...
Multiple modals, as in the phrase “I thought y’all may would have some more of them,” have their own logic and are well understood by many in the American South. The Database of Multiple Modals compiled by Paul Reed and Michael...
skronk n.— «The music touched on free jazz, especially when Krieger let forth some quick runs or hit those intense, dented notes aficionados refer to as “skronk.” He was a fiery presence onstage, often bending over an amp to...
break beef v. phr.— «Every Friday, he picks up a carcass or two from Redwood Meat, then brings the meat back to the store and cuts it into rib-eyes, prime rib, filet mignon—just about every cut you can think of. What’s not used in the...
shorty n.— «Andrew returned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to be fitted for his first prostheses. These “stubbies” or “shorties,” as they are called, are only about a foot in length and are...