Next time you stub your toe, try letting loose with a Bandoozer! Sarah from Elk Rapids, Michigan, says her grandparents invented a fake swear word bandoozer to give kids the thrill of naughtiness without any real harm. Bandoozer doesn’t appear...
The entry for geranium lake in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary describes it as “a vivid red that is lighter and slightly yellower and stronger than apple red, yellower, lighter, and stronger than carmine, and bluer, lighter, and...
An alcoholic who’s been sober for 29 years wonders if she’s overly sensitive to the terms non-alcoholic and alcohol-free being used with reference to food and drink. The problem is that alcoholic has more than one meaning. It can refer...
To grok something means “to understand it completely.” The word grok comes from a language spoken on the planet Mars—well, at least according to the science fiction writer who coined the term! Also, we know the meaning of the word...
Eric from Scranton, Pennsylvania, shares a funny story about having his hopes dashed as a five-year-old when his teacher told the class they were going down the hall to the laboratory. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Author, poet, and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht has observed that although medical advice even from 100 years ago can be wildly outmoded, expressions of love written two millennia ago can have deep resonance, creating what she calls a...