’Twas Halloween Night (Thanks to Clement Clark Moore, who wrote “The Night Before Christmas.”) ’Twas Halloween night, and all through the house, All the creatures were stirring and eating a mouse. The monsters had gathered to plan and prepare For all trick-or-treaters they wanted to scare. Each creature stepped forth and performed energetically Their Halloween […]
Some punsters are so dedicated to their craft that they throw their hats into the ring at pun contests, which are currently held in multiple U.S. cities, as well as the United Kingdom. I regularly participate in a punderful event called Pundemonium at the Finest City Improv, 3746 Sixth Ave, in Hillcrest. The next Pundemoniums, which […]
When you think about it, the existence of a daily newspaper is a miracle. After all, a newspaper is an enormous product that must be manufactured almost from scratch every day. Even more incredible is that millions of words pour forth from the nation’s presses each day, and almost every one of them is grammatically […]
Some people lament that speaking and writing these days are simply a collection of faddish clichés patched together like the sections of prefabricated houses made of ticky-tacky. They see modern communication as a mindless clacking of trendy expressions. Why is English parlance in such a parlous state? Maybe it’s because verbal knee-jerkery requires no thought. […]
For many years now, there has been circulating a continuously expanding poem. Its leaping-off place is the first verse of “That’s Amore,” the song by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks made famous by crooner Dean Martin: When the moon hits your eye Like a big pizza pie, That’s amore. Something about the rhythm of the […]
DEAR RICHARD: In your recent column, you showcased 10 words that featured a huge number of different meanings. Another word with many uses is up. My family tried one day to think of all the different ways to use up, and we never gave up on our quest! –Kelly Sakoi, Rancho Peñasquitos What’s up with […]
Sometimes it seems that almost all Americans either play sports or watch them. Because competition occupies such a central place in American life and imagination, we hear a kind of democratic poetry in the sporty metaphors that make our English language so athletic. These phrases and expressions are vivid emblems of the games that we, […]
The major-league baseball All-Star game in Arlington, Texas, will be played on Tuesday July 16. So I’m starting today’s column with this letter: DEAR RICHARD: We were at the ball park recently when a fly ball was hit into the outfield. The scoreboard flashed “can of corn,” and my daughter asked what that meant. I […]
The Fourth of July is the most prominent all-American holiday — the birthday of our country — even though celebrating the Fourth didn’t become common until after 1815, and Independence Day wasn’t made a federal holiday until 1870. Do we ever celebrate! Families gather for parades, picnics, concerts, carnivals, and fireworks. That national outpouring of […]
Almost eight decades after the end of the Revolutionary War (1776-1783), there erupted another war (1861-1865). Mostly known today as the Civil War, the conflict seared our national consciousness and forever changed what it means to be an American. At dawn of July 1, 1863, the war had been unfolding for more than two years. […]