Carol in Williamsburg, Virginia, wonders why if you bake something and don’t rely on pre-mixed ingredients, you’re said to bake it from scratch. This expression originally referred to a line scratched into the ground to mark the starting...
A listener in Williamsburg, Virginia, wants to know the correct pronunciation of the condiment known as Worcestershire sauce. The proper pronunciation involves what linguists call haplology, the loss of a syllable next to a similar-sounding one...
summer melt n.— «Because of overcrowding problems in previous years, the college reduced the number of offers of admission from 3,486 in 2003 to 3,366 this year. However, this year the college’s admissions office experienced an unexpected...