William Shakespeare shuffled off his mortal coil (died) more than four centuries ago, yet his characters continue to entrall and entertain us today. Commemorating the Bard’s birthday on April 23, I offer a humorous and instructive quiz to test your knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays. Match each Shakespearean character with the appropriate tune. Banquo’s theme […]
Back in January, 1971 (has it really been that long?), a path-breaking sitcom lit up the tubes of our television sets. Created and written by Norman Lear, “All in the Family,” depicting a bigoted blue-collar working stiff and his household, attracted 50 to 100 million viewers by pushing the envelope long before that phrase […]
The Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Christmastide and Twelvetide, is a festive season that starts on Christmas Day, December 25, and ends on January 5, known as the Twelfth Night, when Christmas decorations and trees are traditionally taken down. Today, December 26, is Boxing Day, which has nothing to do with two […]
DEAR RICHARD: Perhaps you can find a place in your column for this anonymous poetic definition of a pun. -Rick Miles, Sorrento Valley Two disparate strings of thought, Tied together with an acoustic knot. Thanks for your clever couplet, Rick. Here’s my favorite verse definition of a pun, also penned by the prolific Irish […]
Very early in our lives as language users we start taking great pleasure in repeating playful sounds. In the crib and romper room we babble ma-ma , da-d, and bye-bye. Soon we are intoning such ditties as eeny meeny miny moe, fee fi fo fum and hickory dickory dock, not because they make a […]
DEAR RICHARD: In the U-T Sports section, I noticed that one of the articles was headlined “Magic Talks About Kobe’s Affect on L.A., Beyond, On Eve of Memorial.” Based on what I learned in grammar school, affect is a verb, while effect is a noun, if the word is referring to “a consequence” of […]
The source of that tingly sensation you feel when you strike your arm is the knob on the end of the bone running from the shoulder to the elbow. The medical name for that bone is the humerus. Back in 1840, some clever wag seized upon the homophonic similarity of humerus and humorous and […]
The torrential response to my recent call for puns is vivid testimony to our collective need for humor. The profound act of laughter is a special blessing to us living in the long, dark shadow of contagion. The late and beloved humorist Richard Armour contends, “Comedy is as high an art as tragedy. It […]
A month ago, I invited you, my punderful readers, to submit your best original preys on words. Within hours, a punami of more than 50 original puns poured in, and by the deadline for submission, I swam in a torrent of more than 200. From start to finish, every day was Punday. Such a response […]
Tomorrow kicks off National Library Week. According to a recent Gallup poll taken before the invasion of COVID-19, visiting the library remained the most common cultural activity Americans engage in, by far. The average annual 10.5 trips to the library U.S. adults reported taking in 2019 exceeds their participation in eight other common leisure […]