Why are psychiatrists and psychologists called shrinks? It’s a jocular reference to the ritual practice in certain tribal societies of literally shrinking the heads of one’s vanquished enemies. The term shrink was adopted as a joking...
Are you a satisficer or a maximizer? The former is the kind of person who runs into the store, takes a quick peek at the options, and gets out of there fast with the simple option that meets their basic needs. For an idea of what maximizers are all...
Remember Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in James L. Brooks’ classic Old Friends? No? That’s because they changed the title to As Good As It Gets. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “More Working Titles” A couple...
Sarah from Dallas asks how to spell the exclamation that rhymes with “woe”: woah or whoa? In U.S. edited prose, the standard spelling is whoa, the form recommended by AP style, though variants such as woah, whoah, and woa show up in email, blogs...
Ever drop a reference that just makes you sound, well, of a certain age? Grant and Martha discuss language that’s lost on other generations. Why is the entree the main course? Shouldn’t it come first? And why is the letter k silent in...
Serene from New York City, who teaches writing with a colleague, asks whether done and finished are interchangeable. The old schoolroom rule that work is done while people are finished appears in many classrooms. But there is no historical evidence...