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  1. Word Routes

     A Real Humdinger of an Etymology
    Tue Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    On the latest installment of the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley, I look into the origins of the slang term humdinger, which hit it big around the turn of the 20th century to refer to someone or something remarkable or impressive.

  2. Word Count

     Are You Willing to Talk About the Elephant in the Room?
    Mon Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    A friend of mine recently did something dangerous. No, she didn't ride a motorcycle up a mountain during a lightning storm, try bungee jumping off a bridge or attempt to go windsurfing with belugas. Here's her confession: When submitting an RFQ she included a brief personal essay.

  3. Backstory

     Bill Gordon, author of "Mary After All"
    Sat May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2006

    I grew up in Jersey City during the 1970s, a somewhat bizarre, often hyper-insightful world where, amidst the urban blight and screwed-up politics, people were judged not by what they did for a living, or what they did to the rest of the world, or even for their larger "reputations," but rather by how they treated you directly. And so it was not uncommon to hear bluntly, within the same sentence, of a "kind" and "gentle" hit man or a "rotten, selfish" priest.

  4. Teachers at Work

     The Hunt for Literary Allusions
    Tue Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2011

    Literature is everywhere. Well, literary allusions are everywhere, that is.

    Students of today live in a time where they have always known cable television, computers and cell phones. Movies come in the mail or via the Wii. Yet that doesn’t mean the classics of literature have faded away. They are around — often referenced in new forms or adapted completely.

  5. Word Routes

     At the End of the Day, What's, You Know, Annoying? Whatever!
    Fri Oct 09 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    It was all over the news yesterday: according to a new poll from the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, whatever is the word that Americans find most annoying. The poll asked respondents which word or phrase bothered them the most, and whatever easily swamped the competition, with 47 percent naming it the most annoying. You know came in at 25 percent, it is what it is at 11 percent, anyway at 7 percent, and at the end of the day at 2 percent. Despite the widespread media attention, we should ask: does this poll really tell us anything useful?

  6. Word Routes

     Mailbag Friday: "Mad Hatter"
    Fri Aug 08 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Today's question for Mailbag Friday comes to us from Valerie P. of Ottawa, Ontario. Valerie writes: "I was visiting a heritage village in Nova Scotia when a guide in a traditional tailor's house told me the origin of the expression, mad hatter. He said that the beaver fur the popular top hats were made of was preserved with mercury. The workers gradually absorbed this mercury while making the hats and eventually became mad. The explanation seems a bit sketchy; can you fill in the details, or correct the explanation?"

  7. Wordmasters

     WordMasters: Grade 3 Blue Division Mar-Apr '09
    Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2009

  8. Wordmasters

     WordMasters: Grade 3 Gold Division Mar-Apr '09
    Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2009

  9. Wordmasters

     WordMasters: Grade 4 Blue Division Mar-Apr '09
    Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2009

  10. Wordmasters

     WordMasters: Grade 5 Gold Division Mar-Apr '09
    Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2009
133 134 135 136 137 Displaying 1341-1350 of 3460 Results