Beddian year
n.— «Shearer chatted with another firefighter, Bobby Beddia. Shearer said recently, “He mentioned that he was very lucky, because he was fifty-three, so this year he got to experience living in his ’birth year.’”…Shearer told the story to Barry Cipra, a freelance math writer in Minnesota.…Cipra wrote a short paper on the idea, which he calls the “Beddian year.”» —“A Firefighter’s Theorem” by Lizzie Widdicombe New Yorker Nov. 12, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
As we’ve previously discussed, firefighters don and dofftheir equipment, terms deriving from do on and do off. They are also said to dout a fire, meaning they “extinguish” it, dout being a similar shortening of do out. This is part...
Book recommendations and the art of apology. Martha and Grant share some good reads, including an opinionated romp through English grammar, a Spanish-language adventure novel, an account of 19th-century dictionary wars, and a gorgeously illustrated...