Hi, all — In this week’s archive edition, we discuss not-so-smartphones, “Erin” vs. “Aaron,” “who” vs. “whom,” what happens when you “overegg the pudding,” and what it means to...
Ben Schott’s language blog Schott’s Vocab on the New York Times website held a contest for modern age greeting cards called Get Web Soon. Among the favorites: “Heartfelt condolences on the loss of your data” and...
A Little Rock, Arkansas, caller has been going out with a Chinese woman. Her English is pretty good, but he wonders about the most polite way to correct a minor grammar mistake without ruining a new relationship. This is part of a complete episode.
Chimerica n.—Gloss: The symbiotic Chinese-American financial relationship, in which there is a great trade imbalance as Americans save little and buy lots, and there is a great investment in American Treasury bills and the dollar by the...
bowl of red
n.— «The fact that a Texas “bowl of red,” as chili is commonly called, has no original relationship with past didn’t matter.» —by Mark Busby The Southwest , 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
DADT n.— «One factor that makes her case interesting is that Witt never openly violated the tangled “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, or “DADT” as it is known. She was outed when an anonymous tipster told Air Force...