Peter, calling from the coastal town of La Jolla, California, asks for a word for the bright pools of silver light that form on the ocean when sunbeams poke through cloud cover. Albedo describes the proportion of light a surface reflects, and...
funemployment n.— «What most people would call unemployment, Van Gorkom embraced as “funemployment.” While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining...
Martha explains how experiments with dead frogs and live wires led to the invention of the battery, and inspired a couple of familiar English words.
silver n.— «Even the so-called better prints that pirates affectionately call silver” are not free of bloopers. One young media professional was amused to find Brad Pitt crying in Spanish in what the cover promised to be the English...
buckle bunny n.— «Other riders arrived, mostly oblivious to the halo of interest they received, particularly from women. Rodeo groupies are called buckle bunnies for the saucer-size silver buckles that cowboys earn for winning rodeo...
scrap rate n.— «Warner said she has even customers asking her to appraise a roll of nickels for the metal content. But because most dealers pay for what is known as the scrap rate of the day, would-be sellers might not be making quite the...