Joseph from Wilson, Wyoming, wonders: Why is subpar, or in other words under par, a good thing in golf but nowhere else? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Subpar vs. Under Par” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hello, this is Joseph...
Should the Great Recession be talked and written about as a proper noun? Recessions tend to be vague in their scale and timelines, so it’s problematic to mention them as proper nouns. Perhaps the similarities in sound between Great Recession and...
scalejacking n.— «Dave Balter coined this great term. It describes the quest of marketers for size at all costs. Because marketers were raised on the scale of mass—TV, radio, newspapers—they have a churn and burn mentality. The internet turns this...
rivet counter n.— «North End Train Center has some intense customers who Colley likes to call “rivet counters.” These are collectors who won’t buy an item unless it is absolutely correct and to perfect scale.» —“Small Business Scene: Miniature...
carborexic n.— «To others they come across as “energy anorexics,” obsessing over personal carbon emissions to an unhealthy degree, the way crash dieters watch the bathroom scale.…Jay Matsueda, who might also answer to the name energy anorexic, or...
Word nerd Ammon Shea quit his job as a furniture mover in New York City to spend an entire year reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary. The result, in addition to eyestrain, headaches, and skeptics’ puzzlement, was Shea’s new book, Reading the...
