DEAR RICHARD: Plucked from a recent headline in the Union-Tribune: “Rare corpse flower is set to bloom again / Despite smelling like rotting flesh, thousands visited during last cycle in 2018.” I wish those visitors had bathed! –Bill Griffiths, Rancho San Diego DEAR RICHARD: I thought you might like to add to your collection […]
The Irish tell a story about a notorious drunkard and trickster named Jack. He couldn’t enter heaven because he was a miser, and he was unable to enter Hell because he had played practical jokes on the Devil. The Devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the darkness. Jack placed […]
When I was a callow youth, my neighborhood buddies and I used to sing a learned lyric that played around with levels of diction: Perambulate, perambulate, perambulate your craft Placidly down the liquid solution. Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically: Existence is but a delusion. Translated into clear and simple English, our polysyllabic poem turned out […]
DEAR RICHARD: I grew up on a steady diet of proverbs. They aren’t heard as often nowadays, but they bring back memories of simpler times. -Bill Collins, Tierrasanta A proverb is a concisely presented saying rooted in philosophical or religious truth. Just about everybody knows some proverbs, and we often base decisions on these instructive […]
The fifth annual Feastival of Books will take place virtually on Saturday, August 21, 10 am-5 pm. For information about this bibliophilic event, click sdfestivalofbooks.com. Honoring this great cultural event, I share with you a quiz of “Perfect Matches,” from my bouncing baby book, Richard Lederer’s Ultimate Book of Literary Trivia. Match each real […]
You know that a bunch of sheep crowded together is a flock, a group of antelope loping together a herd, a cluster of fish swimming together a school and a crowd of bees buzzing together a swarm. But have you ever heard of a crash of rhinoceroses, a clowder of cats, a kindle of kittens, […]
How solid is your knowledge of nations and their legacies to the world? Where do Labrador Retrievers and Great Danes come from? Where else but Newfoundland and Germany? Where are the West Indies located? In the Caribbean, not off the west coast of India. In what country did the Pennsylvania Dutch originate? Germany. Dutch […]
Believe it or not, groak is a verb that means “to stare at another’s food in hopes that he or she will offer you some, in the manner of dogs and certain people we know.” But you won’t find groak in standard dictionaries. The human passion and power to name everything is nowhere better […]
May is Older Americans Month. This formal recognition of the chronologically gifted began with President John F. Kennedy in 1963, when he designated May as Senior Citizens Month. Back then, only 17 million Americans reached their 65th birthday. Today more than 40 million of us are alive and living vibrant years. Fullness of years […]
Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday commemorating the defeat of the French army at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Today, Cinco de Mayo (“5th of May”) is among the largest and most energetic celebrations in the world. The recognition of Cinco de Mayo history quickly spread from Mexico to the […]