Howdy, long time no chat! It's another newsletter from A Way with Words. Well, there are big goings-on here. Besides Martha and Grant gearing up for a season of brand-new shows, Grant just finished a 3000-mile move from New York to...
fix-it ticket n.— «Apparently, in most states, having one headlight out is not considered a moving violation (in some states it is legal to only have one headlight working), but referred to as a “fix-it ticket.” Meaning, the police...
What do you call the wheeled contraption that you push around the grocery store? Shopping cart? Shopping carriage? Shopping wagon? Buggy? A former Kentuckian wonders if anyone besides her calls them bascarts. Check out this dialect map featuring...
Googie n.— «The sign, erected sometime during the 1950s, is an example of what is called “Googie,” an exaggerated Jetsons-style of architecture named after a Los Angeles coffee shop.» —“After 50-year run, sign will be...
Kro-ghetto n.—Gloss: A supermarket in the Kroger chain of stores. «They leave no class behind, ranging from the luxuriously large Whole Foods version to the one-dollar polyester deal available at the grocery store in my neighborhood...
memristor n.— «The four passive components of electronics are the resistor, capacitor, inductor and the memristor, which was discovered only a few months ago. Memristors (from memory-resistors, geddit?) are resistors whose resistance...