My dad has great taste in movies, and he’s always been quick to offer a line from one of his favorites whenever an opportunity presents itself. You might be surprised by how easy it is to work “We must not allow a mine-shaft gap!” into a conversation. I think my mom thinks it’s cute, though [...]
People in most places would probably describe currency collection as hoarding or saving. In America, it’s a hobby so popular that the authorities have to promote money as a useful trade commodity in order to get people to buy stuff with it: The United States Mint has been working around the clock to turn out [...]
An alert reader told me this morning that a theater outside Jacksonville, Fla., decided last week to change the words on its marquee from “The Vagina Monologues” to “The Hoohah Monologues” after one panicky motorist complained. “We decided we would just use child slang for it. That’s how we decided on Hoohah Monologues,” [Atlantic Theater [...]
In 2002, White House speechwriter David Frum found himself in hot water — and shortly thereafter out of a job — when his wife circulated an email claiming that Frum had coined the “axis of evil” phrase in President Bush’s recently delivered State of the Union address. “It’s not often a phrase one writes gains [...]
Notorious idiot Gregg Easterbrook, whose “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” column on ESPN.com is the only periodical I can think of that requires a regularly scheduled accompaniment of next-day corrections (he calls it “Reader Animadversion”), makes a curious assertion in his penultimate piece on the 2006-2007 season: The popularity of American-style football is likely to grow internationally [...]