Barbara Kingsolver’s book Demon Copperhead is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in today’s Appalachia. Martha shares memories of a long-ago visit to Kingsolver’s family farm in Virginia, where they...
Ty in Nashville, Tennessee, has fond memories of his dad handing him what he called folding money. This term simply refers to bills, rather than coins. Other versions include folding dough, folding stuff, folding matter, folding green, folding...
The new book Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern (Bookshop|Amazon) is a fascinating history about the colorful characters who attempted to reinvent the complicated Chinese script to adapt it for use with modern...
kodakan v.— «The word Kodak itself is synonymous with photography. In the Philippines, the street lingo “kodakan” is often used as a generic term: to take a picture—though now, more often used as a whimsical statement.» —“The end of...
Grant has the latest headlines from the world of language, including the debate over the name of the home of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Is Beijing pronounced bay-JING or bay-ZHING? Also, a recent court decision concerning an offense that’s...
MP3Jing n.— «I need to look into repairing the headphone jack on my laptop. Without it, I can’t run monitors out from my MP3Jing software. That means no beatmixing.» —“Enjoying the silence” by The Angelus Aggregate of...