Cyril Northcote Parkinson’s Law should be familiar to anyone who’s ever been assigned a minor task and a long weekend to get it done— “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” This is part of a...
Today’s most popular dog names are Max and Bella. In the Middle Ages, though, dogs would answer to names like Amiable. Or Nosewise. Or even … Clench. ? Is the term redneck derogatory? Some folks proudly claim that name. They say...
This week: whether cotton-pickin’ is racist, unintentionally funny headlines, whether enormity can simply mean “enormous,” how a person can be “such a pill,” and pandiculation. “It’s good stuff, Maynard...
paper daisy n.— «Rangers have the unenviable task of picking up what they euphemistically call “paper daisies”—pieces of toilet paper left to blow around. Some people don’t even bury it.» —“Fraser Island a big toilet...
ununbium n.— «The ubiquitous periodic table will soon have a new addition—the “super-heavy” element 112. […] IUPAC temporarily named the element ununbium, as “ununbi” is derived from the figures “one...
When Barack Obama intoned, “I do not underestimate the enormity of the task ahead,” some grammar sticklers recoiled. Pointing to the word’s roots, they insist that enormity means not “large,” but “out of the...