It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...
Anna in the San Francisco Bay area asks about her family’s pronunciation of measure as /ˈmeɪʒər/, rhyming with hay sure, rather than /ˈmɛʒər/, rhyming with treasure. It’s uncommon, but not unique. Anecdotal reports put it in parts of the Great...
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell, for example, advocated answering with Ahoy!, while Thomas Edison argued for Hello. As...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s Writer’s Math hides written-out numbers across word breaks in quotations and sentences. The solver hunts consecutive letters spanning two or more words, as in the prompt Launch yourself on every wave, drawn from Thoreau’s...
Daniel in Omaha wonders how cartoonists showed a sudden idea before the light bulb over the head became a familiar convention. No clear predecessor is known, but the incandescent bulb as a sign of inspiration was popularized by Felix the Cat in the...
At Thomas Edison’s Seminole Cottage in Fort Myers, Florida, Bruce from Tampa Bay noticed a house rule warning guests not to cabbage unto yourself all the fish poles, or hog them. The verb cabbage has meant to take, pilfer, plagiarize, or borrow...