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Happy New Year, everyone. At least, I hope so! To get us started on a not-so-serious track, I am holding a contest for the funniest typo of 2021. We looked at several in October – based on the number of comments received, the winner from that post was the “Walking Closet” example. Several of you…
For the final 2021 blog post and in honor of the holiday seasons, I give thanks for my friends who are also readers of this blog and the many ideas, suggestions, and comments you have sent to me. Some of those suggestions included links to grammar websites which I am now sharing with all of…
In honor of the amount of food we all might be enjoying during the upcoming holidays, here are some expressions that mention food. “Not worth a hill of beans.” (Not sure I want to know the meaning behind this one) “Don’t fall off of the apple cart.” (Huh? 😕) “She’s the apple of my eye.”…
I thought it was time for another Cliché Corner when I “ran” across this saying the other day – “run of the mill.” Of course, I asked our Cliché Corner contributor, Mary Pat, for her input. Here is what she found: “Run of the mill today means ordinary or average, but it originated as things…
I apologize for missing the first “Words Wednesday” for a post last week. I was in Milwaukee, attending the Property Records Industry Association conference. What a fun town! Perfect weather, lots of people out walking, running, riding bicycles. Extremely friendly folks everywhere (even the TSA check-in lady at the airport was pleasant!). We stayed downtown…
American English has so many prefixes that mean “not” or “no” – it sure would be nice if we only had one, but then, that would be too simple, wouldn’t it? We have (in no particular order): un, in, im, il, mis, dis, and de. We probably have more. One problem with teaching prefixes is…
Things I Think About – While Swimming . . . You all know that I like to wonder about things. Most of the time, I don’t even want to know the real reason ‘behind the curtain,’ I just like to ponder and guess at how something started, or who thought of an idea. I marvel…
Thank you to Laura Beth and Mary Pat for contributing to our first ‘cliche’ discussion. I had no idea how “fit as a fiddle” might have started – those energetic fiddle players! And Laura Beth noted that: When you die, you “pass,” “kick the bucket,” “go to sleep,” “go home,” and “give up the ghost.” …
Many of our words come from people’s names, usually because they invented the item. You have probably heard that the “sandwich” was invented by the Earl of Sandwich who did not want to leave the gambling table to eat so he asked for some meat between two slices of bread. Braille, the method of printing…
I love Reader’s Digest. It has so many interesting articles – positive and heartwarming, but also updated health information and other current topics. My favorite sections, as you might expect, are the funny comments and the puzzle sections. One of my favorite puzzles is a section called “Word Power.” In the February, 2021, issue, we…