Jim in Sacramento, California, was reading The Good Detective (Bookshop|Amazon) by John McMahon, when he came across a description of the Georgia countryside as flatter than a gander’s arch. Just how flat was it, and what’s a...
Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a puzzle called “Categorical Allies.” After he says a word, you must come up with second word that’s in the same category, and begins with the last two letters of the original word. For example, if he says...
split roll n.— «“The whole system is completely unenforceable,” says Lenny Goldberg, a Sacramento lobbyist who, as director of the California Tax Reform Assn., has been pressing for years to institute a “split roll”—that...
banky n.— «Shad aren’t native to the Pacific Coast. They were introduced into the Sacramento River in the 1800s and spread north into the Umpqua, then Columbia river systems. At Oregon City, they collect in the swift water below the falls...
slack fill n.— «An investigation revealed that Mucinex’s packaging violated state law concerning “slack fill,” a term used to describe fake walls, fake bottoms or excessive amounts of non-functional space.» —“Settlement...
Sanframento n.— «As the Bay Area and Sacramento regions creep relentlessly toward each other along Interstate 80—getting uncomfortably crowded along the way—officials from both areas are promoting an idea they call mega-regional planning...