An artist asks strangers to write haiku about the pandemic and gets back poetic, poignant glimpses of life under lockdown. Plus, the new book Queenspotting features the colorful language of beekeeping! Bees tell each other about a good source of...
Jocelyn in Richmond, Virginia, is curious about the expression busier than a one-armed paper hanger, meaning extremely busy. Perhaps the earliest version of this phrase comes from a 1908 short story by O. Henry: as busy as a one-armed man with the...
What’s so cool about bees’ knees, anyway? The bee’s knees, a phrase meaning “cool” or “great,” dates back to the flapper era of the 1920s. It relates to an old definition of the word “cute,”...
BOB n.— «But the mason bee earns an “A” for effort from orchardists and gardeners. This native of Washington, common throughout the West, is one of our hardest-working pollinators. Mason bees have a sweet tooth for fruit trees, and for...
crop n.— «A “crop” is the term for a get-together of scrapbookers, similar to the term “bee” for a group of quilters.» —“Crafters gather at crop: Women get together to record memories in scrapbook...
meat bee n.— «In Central Oregon, the two main problem species are the Western yellow jacket (Vespula pensylvanica) and the common yellow jacket (Vespula vulgaris). They are commonly referred to as “meat bees,” Bissell said. They aren’t in...