Sporty Origins Of Some Popular Expressions

by Dictionary Scoop    Have you ever heard someone say “I’ll have to start from scratch”? Ever wondered what “in the nick of time” means? What all these expressions have in common is that they originated in the world of sports.     Want to know more? Discover all those phrases you often say but didn’t know …

Old Technology Before TV Had Its Tubes Tied

by Kevin Burton    Technology doesn’t march on anymore, it flies.    Actually, flying seems to pedestrian a concept to describe it. Teleports, is that the word I am looking for?    Today we’re looking at old technologies, finishing a list from the Dictionary Scoop website that we started yesterday.    Number 9 on the …

Dave Barry Saves Sanity of Kansas Man

by Kevin Burton    When there is a Dave Barry book on your front porch, you’re having a good day.    Every writerly thing in me, now wants to write, “nothing else matters.”  But we both know that isn’t entirely true. Nothing else?    Tell you what though Sugarbear, nothing else matters for the next …

Was This The Worst Idea Of The 1970s?

by Kevin Burton    Pet rocks I remember. Mood rings, yep. Little sawed-off Gremlin cars. Yeah, I remember those.     I was part of the 70s. I was on the scene baby! I watched the Jackson 5 cartoon. Didn’t dance much but I sang a lot of disco. I remember the bicentennial and staying up …

Power Slanguage Of A Groovy Generation

by Dictionary Scoop    The 60s were truly a magical time, weren’t they?    If there’s one word that truly defined this decade, it would be the word “freedom”: After all, the 60s were defined by their revolutionary new takes on music, art, and society in general.     In fact, this era was so groundbreaking that …

Sharp-Dressed Words From Fashion Industry

by Dictionary Scoop     In this article, we uncover the origins of 10 items from the fashion industry. Even though all of these garments have evolved over time, their unusual names remain. 1-Denim    A couple of centuries before Levi Strauss popularized denim jeans, two cities in Europe were already developing the textile that would become an icon of …

Jeopardy, Wheel Face Civil Rights Complaints

by Jessica Guynn and Felecia Wellington Radel, USA TODAY    Executives at Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune discriminated against people of color, then fired them for raising concerns about a toxic work environment, two former employees claim in civil rights complaints obtained by USA TODAY.    The two former Sony Pictures Entertainment workers said they were …

Happy Birthday To The Great Art Garfunkel

by Kevin Burton    OK, so this is what I get for digging into my favorite songs.    First, Happy birthday to singer-songwriter Art Garfunkel, born on this day in 1941. I do not have a present for him today, but I have been pondering within his great gift to us.    It was the …

“My Sharona” Exploded, The Knack Fizzled

by Kevin Burton    This song was headed for the top. No two ways about it.    It was d-d-destiny, to borrow a stuttered word from the lyrics.    The first time The Knack played “My Sharona” at MCA Whitney Recording Studios, producer Mike Chapman told the band it was going to be a number …

What Does Blind Barbie Mean Really?

by Kevin Burton    I was on the road playing beep baseball when the e-mail notifications about the first blind Barbie doll came pouring in. And I mean they poured in, from every quarter.     I thought, that’s a story. But then I realized, I had no idea what to think or say about it. …