How can categorizing words from Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief help introduce students to the major themes of the novel?  Continue reading...

Tonight the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament kicks off at the Brooklyn Marriott with "an evening of games and entertainments" — a night of conviviality before the Tournament proper begins Saturday morning. We here at the Visual Thesaurus are happy to help sponsor the Friday fun, providing complimentary VT subscriptions to the prize-winners. I'll be attending tonight (in advance of competing in the Tournament in the "rookie" category), and I'm looking forward to meeting up with friends old and new in this collegial community of diehard verbivores.  Continue reading...

Recently, one of my teachers sent me a link to an interview of Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove, given to Fritz Lanham of the Houston Chronicle. The interview contained Mr. McMurtry's very pessimistic viewpoint that the end of book culture is near.  Continue reading...

With this year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament just around the corner, there is no better time to consider that peculiar, vowel-heavy brand of English known as "crosswordese." Think you're a first-rate cruciverbalist? Quick: can you tell an anoa from an unau?  Continue reading...

Mim Harrison, author of Spoken Like a Pro: An Insider's Guide to the Language of Professions and Smart Words, has some simple advice in these tough economic times: "Talk like a pro and you could save some dough."  Continue reading...