It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...
This week it’s butterflies, belly flowers, plot bunnies, foxes, and cuckoos. Also, writing advice from Mark Twain and a wonderful bit of prose from Sara Pennypacker’s book Pax. And are there word origins? Well, does a duck swim? We’ll...
Steve in Bend, Oregon, asks: Does bully pulpit mean what people think it means? Is the bully the same as the bully you might find in a schoolyard? What did Teddy Roosevelt really mean when he said he had a bully pulpit? There’s an old meaning that...
Los Anchorage n.— «That was in the early 1900s when Seward was the main supply port for miners in the Hope/Sunrise district of the Kenai and where a still-hoped-for Alaska railroad would start. Seward was a boom town, and Anchorage was...
Eastlos n.— «RUBIN: I’m like, “Oh, a Latino kid from Eastlos going to New York.” SANCHEZ: Eastlos? RUBIN: Yeah, East Los Angeles, going to New York.» —“Profile: Problems at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles...
pumpkin lily n.— «Such snide remarks as “eastern pumpkin lily” and “four-eyed dude” and less printable ones kept him in fighting trim.» —“Teddy Roosevelt Nation’s Youngest President” by Victor W...