by Kevin Burton Merriam-Webster promised me a list of Scrabble words without vowels, but delivered a bunch of words (with one exception) with the letter Y in them. Y is a vowel, a card-carrying vowel. The fact that it has a part-time job as a consonant does not change that. The venerable dictionary …
Tips For An Organized, Clutter-Free Household
by Dictionary Scoop We all know keeping a house organized takes time, energy, and even money at times. But none of those are enough when you don’t know how to get the organization ball rolling. Organization can be a powerful tool to gain control over every aspect of your life. By learning some …
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Use The Whole Armor Of God All Of The Time
by Kevin Burton A policeman, a hockey goalie, a beekeeper, all of them use protective equipment to do their jobs. And they don’t leave part of that protection in their locker. Even more so, a believer can’t afford to go into battle without taking all the weapons God has prepared for us. The …
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Embrace Your Mother While You Still Can
by Kevin Burton Hug your mom. Hug her today if you can. Hug her tomorrow because tomorrow is Mother’s Day, but don’t wait for a prompt from the greeting card companies. Hug her any time. Hug your mom. You see this on Facebook all the time. Hug your mom because you will …
The Unkindest Contranym Of All? Ask Fido
by Kevin Burton Imagine if you will, a Richard Pryor bit from the 70s, that could have been, to introduce the concept of the contranym, a word with two opposite meanings. These lines are from the family puppy, whose usual panting, tail-wagging enthusiasm for a car ride (oh boy!) has gone tragically wrong: …
Far From Being Obsolete, Braille Is Essential
by Tracy Conly (Tracy Conly is a longtime friend from our days at the Ohio State School for the Blind, a great Braille reader and advocate for the blind. This is her reaction to our March 15 story “A New Tool In The Fight For Braille Literacy.”) “Braille changes lives. It gives thousands …
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Studies Say Music Is The Way To Brainpower
by Kevin Burton My father wanted me to study computer programming in college. He had that charming way of pushing his desires for himself onto other people. I wanted to be a journalist – an unblinking champion of the truth and a painter with words. I had that charming way of evaluating ideas …
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Little-Known Facts About McDonald’s
by Kevin Burton I used to think I liked McDonalds chicken nuggets – until the time I forgot to ask for barbecue sauce. Oops! McNuggets are my choice at McDonalds because I hate everything else. McDonalds in not our restaurant rotation. When we travel to beep baseball tournaments this summer we …
More English Words From Japanese
by Kevin Burton Some of my totally blind friends used to fold dollar bills in certain ways so they would know what denomination they were. That was before the days of bill reader devices, so I’m not sure anybody does that folding any more. Anyway I used to call that folding that people …
English Words That Come From Japanese
by Kevin Burton Words do not respect borders, nor do they need passports to move from country to country. We don’t think of Japan so much as an origin for English words, but plenty of words are borrowed from Japanese. Merriam-Webster dictionary has served up a basketful, some of which I bring today. …
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