When Julius Caesar chose to cross the Rubicon River and march against his rival in Rome, he supposedly said Alea jacta est, or “The die is cast,” indicating that at that point, there was no going back. The phrase is a reference to...
A.J. Jacobs’ book The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life is a delightful celebration of the history and lure of all kinds of puzzles and puzzlers, from...
whippy n.— «A chief of detectives at Kings Cross, Detective Inspector Brian Meredith, had said he was against police taking regular bribes but as far as he was concerned they could pocket “whippy”—money they found on...
Cracker Chic n.— «“Cracker Chic” is a new term now relating to a decorating style currently gaining popularity. It consists of very simple and smaller scaled antiques, bungalows and furniture mostly void of ornate carvings and...
chipping n.— «“I was just chipping,” Cross says. That’s a street term that means she’d use whatever drug she could get. “Coke, heroin, anything you can shoot, I was shooting it.”» —“Addiction Center set her on path...
knebbing n.— «The book tells of how a large crane which became known as the Whittle Cross was used to load and unload the barges and how villagers would scavenge for scraps of coal which fell into the canal during offloading—a practice...