A Florida State University professor is tired of writing the same comments over and over on student papers. He wonders about the most effective written feedback, and specifically, whether there’s a better way to say a paragraph is particularly...
Don’t think about ordering a soft serve ice cream in Vermont—there, it’s a Creemee. The term has stuck around the Green Mountain State by the sheer force of Vermonter pride. This is part of a complete episode.
In Zen Buddhism, the term all one refers to a state of enlightenment that’s the opposite of isolated and alone. The word alone, however, comes from the idea of “all on one’s own.” The word alone also gives us lone, lonely and...
A veteran broadcaster recalls a brilliant example of sesquipedalian language. Fifty years ago, he stubbed his foot on the beach and a group of college boys told him to go to his parents and get an anatomical juxtaposition of the orbicular ors...
A Minnesotan who relocated to Wisconsin gets called a mud duck, and wants to know why. Much in the way Wisconsinites get referred to as cheese heads, it’s really a harmless bit of nomenclature from a cross-state rivalry. In hunting, the term...
What’s the right way to pronounce gyros? Have you ever heard of feeling poozley? Called something great a blinger? Use the expression one-off to mean a “one-time thing”?