Old-school news, just in time
by Dictionary Scoop. If “nonverbal” is the opposite of “verbal,” shouldn’t “nonchalant” be the opposite of “chalant”? As it turns out, it’s not so simple. “Unpaired words” are terms we assume should exist, based on standard linguistic rules, but don’t. To test your knowledge and learn more about unpaired words, guess which of …
Continue reading “Turnabout Not Always Fair Play With Words”
by Dictionary Scoop Some things in life are so simple and effortless that they deserve their own colorful descriptions. It wasn’t difficult to compile these ten phrases: 1-I can do it in my sleep We all have that one recipe we know by heart—the one we turn to whenever we want to impress …
by Kevin Burton One fine morning in a restaurant we don’t often go to, in a small town where you better not speed or they’ll fine you for sure (Derby, Kansas), a waitress referred to my wife and I as “yins.” That is a contraction of “you ones” and it’s a regionalism from …
by Kevin Burton After last week’s posts about the Food Network, we set the table once more with words about food from our friends at Merriam-Webster dictionary. I have heard the chefs on TV drop some of these words, but other words on the list sound more like Roman or Jewish names from …
by Kevin Burton It’s been 40 years and I haven’t forgotten. But it would appear that my limited affection for Simple Minds begins and ends with Ally Sheedy and The Breakfast Club. Both the band and the Brat Pack were white hot in 1985, 40 years ago this week, when “Don’t You …
Continue reading “Can’t Forget The Breakfast Club, Simple Minds”
by Kevin Burton When you bite the hand that feeds you, chances are you won’t get fed anymore. Or you could say it this way: “no more fun and games.” That’s the story of the Houston-based, late 60s sunshine pop band The Fun And Games, according to published accounts. Not very …
by Dictionary Scoop Cowboys in the Old West not only tamed the inhospitable land, but they also forged their own language. They created unrefined similes and metaphors, broke the rules of grammar, flooded figures of speech with humor, and made a verb out of anything. In this article, we review 12 expressions we …
by Kevin Burton Bob Seger’s highest charting song is not the song closest to his heart, nor, I’m guessing, is it foremost in the esteem of his true-blue fans. The beloved singer-songwriter from Ann Arbor, Michigan turns 80 today. So I looked up his chart history to see if he had ever had …
Continue reading “Happy 80th Birthday To The Great Bob Seger”
by Dictionary Scoop Some don’t like to talk money, but still, there is no shortage of money-related sayings, phrases, and idioms. Here are the origins and meanings of ten fun expressions about money, 1-Burning a hole in your pocket We could divide most people into two groups: On one side, those who know how to save, look …
Continue reading “Money Talks, But Sometimes It Talks Funny”
by Kevin Burton Thirty-six little hours before we were to set sail for Memphis, my wife Jeannette checked the weather. And we never set sail for Memphis. The National Weather Service had issued a flood warning covering Memphis at exactly the same time we had planned to hit town. That sort of …
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