Quiz Guy John Chaneski sums up the events of 2009 in the form of limericks, all with a blank to be filled. Here’s one: NASA really put on a great show / A new lunar crater did blow / To the glee of mankind / The rocket did find / That the moon...
One definition of a shivaree is “a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the...
What’s a Luddite? Martha explains that this term for “someone resistant to technological change” has its roots in a form of populist rage in the early 19th century. This is part of a complete episode.
bug boy n.— «Around the racetrack, they are called “bug boys,” but not for their love of insects. These jockeys get their names because the Daily Racing Form used to print a “bug”—or asterisk—next to the weight...
hapa adj.— «At Stanford last year, a group of women who are Asian and white and were in classes together formed HAPA, the Half Asian People’s Association. “Hapa” is Hawaiian for half Asian.» —“Students Of Mixed Race Form...