Think about it: If a megaphone makes your voice bigger, what does a microphone do? If adults commit adultery, do infants commit infantry? If pro and con are opposites, is congress the opposite of progress? If your nose can run, can your feet smell? If olive oil is made from olives, corn oil from […]
Dear Readers: Your over and above and far and away enthusiastic response to last month’s column about redundancies has inspired me to write another one. Here ’tis: My fellow colleagues and classmates, I am here to tell you the honest truth, not to be confused with the dishonest truth, about the basic fundamentals of […]
RIDDLER REACHER at your service. That’s a full anagram of my name, Richard Lederer. Riddles have riddled humanity for millennia. Even 4,000 years ago, people tested one another’s critical thinking skills with riddles and logic puzzles. This ancient Sumer civilization, located in what is today Iraq, left us with one of the earliest known […]
We usually think of rhyme as a musical device found only in poems. But, in fact, rhyme is the name of the game. Rhyme appeals so powerfully to the human ear that, if we listen carefully, we can discover a surprising number of common, everyday words and phrases that rhyme. Let’s take a sneak […]
Friday, June 21, is World Giraffe Day, which celebrates the towering wonders that share our planet. Giraffe Day is an initiative of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, and zoos, schools, governments, institutions and conservation organizations around the world join in by hosting events to raise awareness and support for giraffes in the wild. Giraffes are […]
Recently, I wrote a column about bilingual redundancies, such as “the La Mesa Library.” In the billowy mail bag of responses, this analysis gleamed out: “In your recent column regarding the double the problem for places with names of Spanish origin you failed to mention, that these names are not thought of in their […]
Because we English speakers seem to have our heads screwed on backwards, we constantly misperceive our bodies, often saying just the opposite of what we mean. For example, I keep seeing signs on low doorways that warn Watch Your Head, but I haven’t figured out how to follow that instruction. How does one actually […]
DEAR RICHARD LEDERER: I read your announcement about your forthcoming visit to our local library here in La Mesa. You refer to “the La Mesa” library. Is that correct since La is the Spanish definite feminine article for the? –Nora Curran, La Mesa A thousand thanks, Nora, for your cogent question, an indication that […]
From alpha to omega, You can bet the alphabet, Like a painting done by Degas, Will leap and pirouette. See dancing words, entrancing words, Sterling words unfurling. Watch prancing words, enhancing words, Whirling, twirling, swirling. The word alphabet is a joining of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The […]
St. Patrick’s Day will cavort through a merry jig tomorrow. So today I am throwing some bull — not just any kind of bull, but an Irish bull. And while I’m at it, I’ll toss in a stampede of Irish bulls. What is an Irish bull? I’m glad I asked me that. Some dismiss it […]