When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms like YOYO — “you’re on your own” — or CORN, for “Clean Out your Refrigerator...
Why do news releases from agencies such as the FBI, the CIA, the EPA, and the IRS drop the initial the before these initialisms? This is part of a complete episode.
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...
Amber in Mansfield, Texas, has a friend from London, England. After she moved to the States, the friend was surprised to find that when she’s conversing with strangers from the United States, they’ll drop in what Americans think of as...
One way to make your new business look trendy is to use two nouns separated by an ampersand, like Peach & Creature or Rainstorm & Egg or … just about any other two-word combination. A tongue-in-cheek website will generate names like...
Terra in Gillespie, Wisconsin, says her family uses the word schlook to mean a tiny amount of liquid, as in just a schlook of milk. It’s from the German noun Schluck, which means “a swallow” or, informally, “a good drop of...