The Sierra Madera Astrobleme is a meteorite crater in Pecos County, Texas. Astrobleme derives from ancient Greek words that mean “a wound caused by a missile.” This is part of a complete episode.
We dish about the many terms for “gossip,” including hot tea, scuttlebutt, the scoop, the 411, the lowdown, the dirt, the scoop, hot goss, the poop, the dope, the T. In prison slang, grapes means “gossip,” and particularly...
Novelist Charles Dickens and the musician Prince were very different types of artists, but they also had a lot in common. A new book chronicling their extraordinary careers becomes a larger meditation on perfectionism and creativity itself. Plus...
You know how when two people accidentally say the same thing simultaneously, they then race to yell Jinx!? There may be hundreds of versions of this game. Anne and her young daughter Amina in Jacksonville, Florida, say versions they’ve heard...
What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry — some of which is collected in the anthology England: Poems from a School. Also, new language among...
A griph is an obsolete term for puzzle or enigma. This word’s etymology is a puzzle itself, although it appears to trace back to Ancient Greek griphos, meaning “fishing basket.” This is part of a complete episode.