Julianne in San Diego wondered why people say desert island instead of deserted island. In that phrase, desert keeps an older sense, meaning “wild and uninhabited.” A desert island can be lush and green, like the island in The Swiss Family Robinson...
Tom from Phoenix still remembers losing a seventh-grade spelling bee over dilemma, because he had been taught there was a silent n and wrote dilemna. The standard spelling is dilemma, and the dictionaries checked don’t list dilemna. Still, Tom isn’t...
