Read “Lederer on Language” every other Saturday in the San Diego Union Tribune and on this site
Presidents’ Day (please note my placement of the apostrophe) began life as a celebration of George Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1732, But Washington was
The word history descends from the Latin historia, meaning “narrative, take, story,” and the saga of our American presidents is festooned with fascinating stories.
What do you get when you dip your little finger into a bottle of writing fluid? An inky pinky. Looking for an entertaining way
DEAR RICHARD: Now retired from 50 years of college teaching and having no more student papers to grade and critique, I address your recent U-T
Child film star Shirley Temple wrote, “I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a
Frosty the Snowman and his wife live in an icicle built for two in the Snow Belt on the snow banks of Lake Snowbegone.
For a goodly number of my readers, defective spelling, punctuation, and pronunciation screech like chalk on a blackboard. It is not my gray hair
Thanksgiving Day is mainly a celebration of the harvest, giving thanks for bountiful crops. Traditionally, a particular meal in 1621 is thought to be
Here’s little poem I’ve conjured up about Halloween monsters: Don’t ever play ping pong with King Kong. Don’t ever take blood tests with Dracula. Don’t
Welcome to the website woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. Carnivores eat meat; herbivores eat plants and vegetables; verbivores devour words. If you are heels over head (as well as head over heels) in love with words, tarry here a while to graze or, perhaps, feast on the English language. Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and your nose can run and your feet can smell.