Why is it harder to talk if we don’t move our hands? Even when we’re talking on the phone we feel the need to gesture to aid communication. A new book offers a look at the relatively new field of gesture studies. And: Ever wonder why we describe the...
You may have a favorite word in English, but what about your favorite in another language? The Spanish term ojalá is especially handy for expressing hopefulness and derives from Arabic for “God willing.” In Trinidad, if you want to ask...
peculiar institution n.— «Alabama is now the fourth Southern state where modern-day lawmakers have apologized for slavery. In Mississippi, though, there has been no grand push to get an official acknowledgment of regret for what was once...
hixploitation n.— «Plenty of movies—from comedies to dramas to horror films—have played profitably off these Yankee fears. To some extent, naturally, a bad rap for the South is justified, given its history of slavery, Jim Crow laws and...