The true scuttlebutt about our nautical English language
October 11, 2025
Let’s go sailing, sailing over the bounding main. A mainstay is a strong rope that helps stabilize a ship’s main mast, but for most of
Read “Lederer on Language” every other Saturday in the San Diego Union Tribune and on this site
Let’s go sailing, sailing over the bounding main. A mainstay is a strong rope that helps stabilize a ship’s main mast, but for most of
In the previous edition of this column, I shared with you a number of pirate riddles and jokes, such as “Where does a pirate go
Arrrrr, me swabbies! Avast, me hearties! Ahoy, me seadogs! Blimey, me scallywags! Schooner or later, it’s Davy Jones’ locker in the briny deep for ye
DEAR RICHARD: I am curious about an advertisement on TV that proclaims, “Only pay for what you need” Is that correct, or should it say,
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. -Dr. Seuss For book
An old American folk rhyme chuckles: Where can a man find a cap for his knee, Or a key for a lock of his hair?
Next week, Comic-Con returns to San Diego, where, back in August 1970, it began life as the Golden State Comic Book Convention in the basement
William Shakespeare began his comedy “Twelfth Night” with the line “If music be the food of love, play on!” About a century later, playwright William
I am a freelance writer of magazine and newspaper columns and articles. That means that I write these pieces on a fee-paid assignment basis rather