Vet Says: Your Cat Only Has Meows For You

by Kevin Burton    How well do you know you cat, asks a Good Housekeeping article that my brother sent me.    Well I am in tune with our two cats, enough so that my wife Jeannette calls me a cat whisperer. If you have cats you know whispering doesn’t always get it done.     …

Where Ya From? What’s Your Demonym?

by Kevin Burton    People from Wichita, the nearest large city to me, are called Wichitans.  That’s straightforward enough.    People from Puebla, Mexico, a city very near to my heart, are called Poblanos. Why not Pueblanos?  Not sure, good question.    Wichitan and Poblano are demonyms. The word demonym is “Rooted in the Greek …

I Can Still Feel That Mexican Embrace

by Kevin Burton    There is a cove that I visit, a path where I meander, to which no one on earth can follow.    I don’t go often, but when I go, I go down deep.    Out of despair from not being able to break into journalism, I decided at 24 to go …

Of Midday Siesta Naps And REM Sleep

by Kevin Burton    Yesterday we brought you some info about sleep from interestingfacts.com, but we know that you’ve slept since then, so we have more from them today.     There was definitely siesta time when I lived in Mexico and worked as a professor of English. Not everybody slept, but the culture and economy …

More Bilingual Americans Than You Think

by Kevin Burton   There was a time when I had multiple dozens of penpals from around the world. More than once I heard this joke:    What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.    What do you call a …

Quibbles And Bits: Going Postal, Smart Water

by Kevin Burton     Come and get it, kids! Page 7 is now serving up quibbles and bits for the first time in 2024. \   We’ve been helping you connect the dots since 2019 and we’re not about to stop now So here’s a train of thought that makes a few stops along the way……. …

Canada: So Close, So Livable, Why Not?

by Kevin Burton  Americans alarmed and disgusted by extreme left-wing and right-wing elements destroying their country bit by bit, can look north to a quite agreeable landing spot.       We posted part of a BBC story, stating that Mexico is the favorite location for expatriates (“Survey Names Mexico best Location For Expats,” Sept. 16).    …

Survey Names Mexico Best Location For Expats

by Kevin Burton    I’ve done it before; I could do it again if I had to. So file this under “just in case.”    The BBC recently published a list of ten best countries for expatriates – people who leave their home country to live abroad – based on a survey by Internations, the …

Coast To Coast: Billy Joel’s “Stop In Nevada”

by Kevin Burton    On the Billy Joel portion of our rock and roll road trip you could have reasonably expected “New York State of Mind” or even “Allentown.” Instead we swing west to look at “Stop In Nevada.”     This song fits very well into our road-trip theme.    Today’s tale includes one of …

Chocolate And More Words From The Aztecs

by Kevin Burton    If you have an appetite for words and/or dinner and dessert, you’re in the right place.    One of the recent Words at Play columns from Merriam-Webster featured words from the Aztecs, who lived in central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest.     The language they spoke (and about …