Sometimes it’s a challenge to give a book a chance: How many pages should you read before deciding it’s not worth your time? There’s a new formula to help with that decision — and it’s all based on your age. • Have you ever...
A magnificent new book celebrates the richness and diversity of 450 years of written and spoken English in what is now the United States. It’s called The People’s Tongue, and it’s a sumptuous collection of essays, letters, poems...
A retired astronomer in Tucson, Arizona, is curious about the expression What are the odds? The idea of odds meaning “the likelihood of something occurring,” goes back to the idea of odds and evens and something odd being the thing...
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: googleganger. Plus, the language of hobbyists and enthusiasts: If you’re a beekeeper, perhaps you call yourself a...
Lynne from Grapevine, Texas, remembers that her parents sometimes referred to her clothing as a get-up, as in That’s quite a get-up, or Where did you get that get-up? The implication was that her outfit was poorly conceived and she ought to...
In response to our conversation about names we call grandparents, John Polk tweeted about a grandfather in his family named Uh-Huh and a grandmother named Who-Who. This is part of a complete episode.