When doing something “willy-nilly”, you’re doing it haphazardly, with no planning or forethought, especially about the consequences of your actions. It’s a peculiar turn of phrase that’s been in our language since the early 1600s (1608, to be specific, according to the earliest example in the Oxford English Dictionary). But how willy-nilly originated, though, goes…
It appears the golden age of the convertible is over…for now, at least, according to new car sales & registration data. But why are convertibles disappearing? Their decline’s actually been pretty constant since the 2000s convertible boom, when it seemed like everyone wanted to feel the fresh air in their crimped hair. But now, less…
With all due respect to Simon & Garfunkel, when you consider the sound of silence, you’ve probably thought “crickets”, the noisy insects that have somehow become synonymous with no sound at all. But how did crickets come to symbolize silence? Well, this sense of the word “crickets” is so recent that it has yet to…
With the heat wave currently hitting us, you’ve probably to someone (or several someones), “Fingers crossed it doesn’t get any hotter!” But why do we do that? Why do we cross our fingers for luck? Crossing fingers, whether to achieve your own good luck or in hopeful solidarity that things go well for someone else,…
When it comes to food safety, it pays to be careful. Properly handling & preparing meat, fish, and poultry to minimize the risk of foodborne illness is key. But one step some people might’ve picked up from relatives or some misguided online advice actually has the potential to increase your chances of getting sick: rinsing…
Like many old proverbs, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” used to have a very literal meaning before the passage of time turned it into a figure of speech. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth means being thankful for a gift, even if you secretly wished for something else. The phrase…
Surprisingly, dead people can tan! According to a paper published in The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology in 2023, “postmortem tanning”, as it’s called, has & does occur. The paper analyzed 3 instances of bodies that demonstrated sun damage via tan lines that matched their clothing. In the first, a woman, who was…
There’s so much going on in the world these days. So many “hot button issues”, as news anchors & political pundits call them. But what actually is a “hot button issue” anyway? Why is it called that? Nowadays, the term “hot-button issue” refers to any situation with a heavy emotional undercurrent. If a subject gets…
Hopefully, everything goes smoothly & as-planned the next time you’re preparing dinner. However, if you’ve ever overcooked your supper, you might’ve found yourself wondering: “this black piece of food in my pan…is it “burned”, or is that “burnt”? (Okay, so grammar usage would probably be the furthest thing from your mind in that moment…but the…
Whenever April 1st, or “April Fools’ Day” rolls around each year, as tricksters will pull out all the stops to play perfect pranks or hatch horrible hoaxes. Whether you love the occasion or dread it, you’ve probably wondered at one time or another how this weird tradition started. And the answer to that is…no one…