Remember a few years ago when Amazon introduced that mysterious device called a Kindle? People worried that electronic readers would replace traditional books. Turns out the death of the hardcover was greatly exaggerated. Also, the expression...
Some New York City street names also denote whole industries, such as Wall Street and Madison Avenue. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Industry Street Names” Out of all the New York language that I know, I think the...
When someone talks about Hollywood or Wall Street, they’re probably not talking about a California city or a Manhattan street. It’s an example of what rhetoricians call metonymy. Metonyms like the White House or Downing Street are often...
The 2011 words of the year list wouldn’t be complete without occupy, as in the Occupy protests that sprang up in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park and elsewhere. And Zuccotti lung? It’s an illness that made its rounds among the camped-out...
porkulus n.— «This massive porkulus—it’s not a stimulus, it’s a porkulus—this porkulus spending extravaganza has been flatly rejected by the Office of Management and Budget and Wall Street.» —“Our EIB Week in Review: “Support...
Martha talks about the hoopoe, that colorful, clownish, extremely smelly bird—with a likely linguistic connection to defrauded hedge fund investors.