by Kevin Burton “Scrabble” is not a German word meaning “one letter off,” that’s just my little joke. Scrabble also at its essence is not a word game as commonly supposed, but a game of mathematics and strategic placement of little tile soldiers. For the words used in scrabble aren’t words so …
Category Archives: humor
Quibbles And Bits: Lawyers Under Oath?
by Kevin Burton Who’s hungry for some quibbles and bits?!… The cat litter my cats use is called Vibrant Life, which strikes me as funny. Vibrant Life sounds more like a megachurch. Vibrant Life a kind of paper litter, which at first did not strike me as funny. It’s more expensive than …
Loud Arguments About Silent Letters
by Kevin Burton When my parents issued me flash cards before kindergarten, I wondered why the work “knife” had a K in it when it didn’t do anything. All these years later I hear from Merriam-Webster that not just e’s and k’s but all the letters of the English alphabet are silent at …
All The Letters Can Be Silent? Shut Up!
by Kevin Burton Silent E is so famous it has a song, we all know about that one. We know how the letter e at the end of man, changes the word to mane, for example. The silent e turns the a from short to long. But did you know all the …
Quibbles And Bits: Shame On Starbucks?
by Kevin Burton Got some things to say. Don’t want to make a federal, 700-word case of them, just want to have my say as they say in England. Just some things I need to get off my chest. I’ll call them Quibbles And Bits. I’ll serve them up on Page 7 …
Hey Word Lovers, Have An Awesome Day!
by Kevin Burton Good day you awesome readers! Are you sick yet of the word “awesome”? The term’s overuse is sparking some awesome outrage among speakers of English. Some generational friction emerges when you look into who is cool with “awesome” and who is not. “Awesome” started with the California surfer crowd …
My ABCs: C Is For Communication
by Kevin Burton So I had this great idea for a series, my ABCs. Take the words that letters stand for in kindergarten, A for apple, B for ball, etc., and trade them in for the words that seem more appropriate after years and years of experience in life. I started this …
Happy Wife, Happy Life, Happy Meals
by Kevin Burton The happy whirring has begun. I meant the whirring from our brand new purchased-on-sale, matches-the-oven, shiny, silver refrigerator. My wife may be whirring happily too, not sure. I told the story of our kitchen appliance upgrade last week (“So Long Old Fridge, Good Riddance,” June 1). I said …
What Ever Happened To The Tambourine?
by Kevin Burton Hey man, do you dig the tambourine? They sure did back in the 60s. It was everywhere! Is there any surer stamp marking the time a record was produced, than the prominent use of tambourine? Just for fun I grabbed one of my 60s compilation CDs, “Feelin’ Groovy” put …
So Long Old Fridge, Good Riddance
by Kevin Burton It’s a little-known fact that the stork who brings babies also delivers kitchen appliances. We’re having a stork visit of the appliance variety next week. We are replacing the old refrigerator. My emotions are decidedly mixed. One of the few bright spots to come from our emergency trip to …
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