Mav in Madison, Wisconsin, has heard content creators on platforms like YouTube and Twitch address their viewers collectively with the word chat, as in Chat, is this real? and Do you see this, chat? She’s heard some people describe chat used...
Robert Charles Hope, inventor of the crank used to adjust the tension on a tennis net, is among thousands of readers who in the late 19th century responded to a call from the Oxford English Dictionary to send in citations for notable words they...
The Public Library: A Photographic Essay (Amazon) is a love letter to America’s libraries and the librarians who open up worlds for readers. It features 150 gorgeous photos by Robert Dawson and essays by famous writers. This is part of a...
Do you answer the phone with a word or phrase that’s a little out of the ordinary? Readers of our email newsletter had some surprising answers to that question. One says that just for fun, he likes to answer with a cheery Front desk! A reader...
In the 19th century, books were especially popular gifts — cheap enough to be owned by the middle class, but enough of an investment that people kept them for decades, then passed them down to the next generation or donated them to libraries...
spag n.— «Spelling and grammar, or Spag if we’re being teacherly, are high on the list of things people complain about to the Readers’ Editor.» —“‘Spag’ can happen to anyone” by Siobhain Butterworth Toronto...