A South Carolina teen calls to ask why the English language has a word meaning “to throw someone out of a window,” but no word for “the day after tomorrow.” The word defenestrate, from Latin fenestra, “window,”...
A 1909 newspaper article from the Paterson, New Jersey, Morning Call recounts the story of a runaway teen who was living the life of Riley — if only briefly. This is part of a complete episode.
Crossword-puzzle constructors often employ words with a vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel pattern, or VCCV. That’s the cruciverbal inspiration Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s VCCV puzzle. For example, if the clue is teen woe, what’s the...
An SAT prep teacher in Santa Cruz, California, hears lots of teen slang in his work, and is struck by a new use of the term legit. This is part of a complete episode.
OMG, text messaging! It’s destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into illiterates. It’s probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, Txting: The Gr8 Db8, David Crystal offers a...
stu-com n.— «“I Love You, Beth Cooper” is unusual in that it’s the rare teen stu-com—shorthand for “stupid comedy,” a proud lineage that goes back to “Porky’s” and beyond—that’s based on a novel.» —“I Love You, Beth...