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I Dream and Daydream About Him Jun. 27, 2019
DR. WALLACE: I just moved to Vancouver at the beginning of this current school year. For a long time... Read More
Reworking the Language of Women Jun. 13, 2019
Earlier today, I was talking to a friend I've known for more than two decades when, twice, she prefa... Read More
Who Was That Masked Mantis? May. 22, 2019
Picture a mosquito with a musket, a mantis with a crystal ball, and a larva wearing a mask. Entomolo... Read More
Can You Catch 40 Winks? May. 15, 2019
Can you find and replace each of the 40 usage errors in this account of my spring-cleaning? (The num... Read More
FDR's Prose Crackled with Clarity May. 08, 2019
Jill Lepore's new book "These Truths," a delightfully quirky and informative romp through U.S. histo... Read More
Reader Bludgeons 'High Dungeon' May. 01, 2019
Q: I was watching a news program, and one of the guests said someone "was in high dungeon" instead o... Read More
Adding a Reward System Apr. 27, 2019
Dear Annie: My wife and I have a perpetual disagreement with each other about cleaning. I tend to be... Read More
Blooper Patrol Laps Up Lapses Apr. 24, 2019
The ever-vigilant Word Guy Blooper Patrol has been working overtime to apprehend examples of erroneo... Read More
You Say Tomato; I Say Tomahto Apr. 24, 2019
I've learned over the years that lots of people get hung up on the lexicon of Social Security. I wil... Read More
Baseball Banter Is Easy-Going ... Going, Gone! Apr. 03, 2019
Batter up and banter up! The new baseball season is in full swing, and the playful palaver of the pl... Read More
'Glide Path' Lands Smoothly on Political Runway Mar. 27, 2019
On "PBS NewsHour" last month, South Bend, Indiana, mayor and likely presidential candidate Pete Butt... Read More
'Predominately' Makes Purists 'Ant'sy Mar. 20, 2019
Q: Why do some people use the adverb "predominately" instead of "predominantly"? Is this an accepted... Read More
Origin of 'Gory' Misses Bull's-Eye Mar. 13, 2019
"The running of the bulls got off to a gory start." That was the first sentence in a CBS News report... Read More
Those Roman Plurals Are Roamin' Mar. 06, 2019
Q. I've noticed that some publications are using "millenniums" in place of "millennia," e.g., "The m... Read More
I Only Have Calves for You Feb. 27, 2019
A Liberty Mutual commercial depicting a bicyclist with grossly overdeveloped "custom" calves feature... Read More
Today's Politics? Don't Get Me Started! Feb. 20, 2019
During the recent partial government shutdown, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeatedly called Presiden... Read More
This Quiz Leaves No Room for Error Feb. 13, 2019
"Roominate" on the choices posed by this usage quiz as it races from the classroom to the emergency ... Read More
Mercury Enters Pisces Feb. 10, 2019
A distorted sense of scale can be a destructive force in the world. It's harmful to exaggerate or di... Read More
A Fortuitous Encounter With Al Michaels Feb. 06, 2019
During a recent NFL playoff game, veteran NBC sportscaster Al Michaels reported that an official's p... Read More
The Revel Is in the Details Jan. 30, 2019
A vivid passage from Michelle Obama's memoir, "Becoming," refreshed my appreciation for the intense ... Read More
