Dear Language Nerd, Where did Santa Claus pick up the name Kris Kringle? Or, for that matter, St. Nicholas? And how did he earn the title of Father Christmas? Frankly, having so many aliases only makes his breaking into houses all the more suspicious. -Mr. Heat Miser *** Dear Mr. Hundred-And-One, Well, merry Christmas to […]
Dear Language Nerd, My nephew’s school is considering removing cursive script from the curriculum, and surprisingly many people feel very very strongly about it, on both sides. Care to weigh in? Yours, A. S. D. Curmeck *** Dear A.S.D., I’ve never had to teach cursive myself, but I sure had to learn it, and the […]
Dear Language Nerd, I know what a British biscuit is, but I gather that the American version is different. Are they a kind of scone? And why the change in meaning across the pond? Victoria *** Dear Victoria, Most of the differences between British and American vocabulary amount to mild amusements. “Tee hee, you go […]
Continuing our series on the cutest invertebrates you didn’t know existed. Dear Biology Nerd, I heard something about a “water bear” and I want to see them, but I think they’re microscopic. What are they and are they as cuddly as they sound? -Katie Mascia *** Dear Katie, “Water bears” are easily some of the […]
Dear Language Nerd, What is it called when you add a special ending to a word to make a new word? Like “intuit” + “tion” = “intuition.” Thanks, Cole *** Dear Cole, Ok. First I’m going to answer the question you think you asked. Then I’m going to answer the question you really asked. Hope […]
Dear Art Nerd, Does art matter? *** Well, you see- *** Prove it. -Karen M. *** Oh, for the love of-! Have you ever seen anything that’s ever been designed before? Like, say, a car, a building or a computer case? Almost everything has been designed by some artist in order to be aesthetically pleasing. […]
Dear Language Nerd, You’re learning Turkish faster than me and it’s pissing me off. How can I learn it faster when my memory is so bad? From Your Roommate, Sal *** Dear Sal, No worries, roomie, here are my rad tips for vocabulary learnin’. Today, we’ll focus on vocab, not grammar or politeness or other […]
Dear Language Nerd, Sometimes when I am writing I use colloquialisms, but they can be obtuse. Sometimes they don’t feel right, but I don’t know why. What the heck is a colloquialism and why should I care? Pete S. P.S. – I find hand-drawn pictures are a very useful means to communicate language-related insight. *** Dear […]
Subtitled: The Vowels are Out to Get You Dear Language Nerd, So I’m an English speaker visiting Turkey, and I’ve picked up a few words of Turkish, but somehow they don’t seem to square with anything I see written. Is it just me, or is the Turkish alphabet way more different from ours than it […]
Dear Art Nerd, My dad found some cable channel full of old cartoons the other day, and as we watched a bunch of Looney Tunes together, I was struck by how fluid the animation was — walking, talking, stretching into bizarre contortions. I grew up on Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh, that kind of thing, and they are […]