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This week marks the palindrome week where every day is a palindrome. (Technically, it’s not the last time in our lifetime, this will happen again on 1/20/21) 9-10-19 • 91-0-199-11-19 • 91-1-199-12-19 • 91-2-199-13-19 • 91-3-199-14-19 • 91-4-199-15-19 • 91-5-199-16-19 • 91-6-199-17-19 • 91-7-199-18-19 • 91-8-199-19-19 • 91-9-19 Let’s celebrate palindromes. The internet has lots of […]
The etymology of the word “fascinating” comes from witchcraft. That explains why people say “fascinating” slowly, as though one is in a spell. I looked up “fascinating” because my three-year-old asked me what that word meant. I thought that “fascinating” would be related somehow to facets. Like the facets of a diamond are fascinating. But […]
Have you ever used the interjection “BOOM!” when you think you are right, but actually you aren’t? If someone corrects your BOOM, they boomeranged you. Last weekend, I was explaining something to my three-year-old daughter. At the end of the explanation I confirmed it with a “BOOM!” But then she corrected me and gave the […]
My wonderful wife wrote a gracious message on my Facebook wall for Father’s day. In her message she mentioned, “joie de vivre.” Not knowing what this phrase means, I headed over to one of my favorite resources on the internet, Google Translate. The default language for translations—for some reason on my Google—was set to Hindi. […]
My method of learning new words in another language: repetition This is how I’m thinking of doing it: Method #1: repetition Have Google Translate translate an English word into another language. In this case, Google translated “great” into the Estonian “suurepärane”. Here’s how it sounds on Google.Click the audio button 20 times. Enter repetition! Here’s […]
Want an easy way of looking through thousands of baby names on your phone? I tried to find a PDF online with girl baby names, but I couldn’t find anything. So I made my own. And now you can use this PDF too. Here’s how I made the PDFs. The U.S. government has a complete […]
Those goofy cardboard sleeves around takeout coffee cups. What are they called? Today I learned they are called a Zarf. What an wonderful word. Zarf. How in the world is it such a cool word? Is that for real? Yes, it is real. Zarf is an Arabic word for vessel. According to etymonline, the usage […]
Today I turn 43 years old. Then I find out that a retirement home chain tweeted my quote six times! A little ironic. Since it’s my birthday, I’m feeling older. And now retirement homes are plastering my name all over their accounts. Thank you, retirement homes. Now that I feel like an old man, my […]
The Word of the Day by dictionary.com is wonderful. Every day features a different, interesting word. Recent words include: dissemble, dopester, bewhiskered, fillip, grumphie, and univocal. The graphics are nice and brief. A very simple digestable explanation is featured on the graphic. These little squares are so handy—and sharable. If you’d like to dig a little bit […]
The curly thing at the end of a staircase handrail is called a volute. Any architecture ornament that is a spiral is also called a volute. Today volute is dictionary.com’s Word of the Day. Volute. Why are curly, spiral things called volutes? Is volute based from some other word? TO THE ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY! The […]
