Jack from Sentinel Butte, North Dakota, reports that in his part of the world, people sometimes inquire about a person’s last name with a question that combines the person’s first name with the phrase How Much, as in Jack How Much? This...
In just seconds, online text generators and chatbots can produce whole paragraphs of sophisticated prose. But what do advances in artificial intelligence mean for writers? What is lost and what’s gained when machine-writing replaces the work...
A new book about how animals perceive their environment reveals immense worlds beyond our own. A bee can see ultraviolet light, catfish have taste buds all over their bodies, and manatees use highly sensitive lips to examine nearby objects. Also...
Jack from Sentinel Butte, North Dakota, observes that in his part of the country, the word outfit can have any of several meanings. Buying a new outfit doesn’t necessarily mean “buying a new set of clothes.” It could well refer to...
yoging n.— «Amey Mathews of Santa Cruz has been practicing yoga since 1994. She teaches it, too. In fact, Amey puts in lots of hours “yoging” (as she calls it), and it makes her very hungry.» —“Back Burner: This blogger...
DF n.— «With all the name-calling that has gone on between recumbent riders and regular cyclists, it’s clear the recumbents have better nicknames.… The regular bike cyclists, on the other hand, call themselves “DF” or...