Last week, Webb’s Weird Words missed an opportunity. We were looking at leptorrhine, one of several oddball terms from cult-fave novelist Charles Portis. Pronounced “LEP-tuh-ryne,” this uncommon adjective means “having a long, narrow nose.” But I forgot to note that this word uses the Greek base rhin(o), meaning “nose”; it’s found in words like rhinovirus
Now nearly 200 years old, Williamsport’s world-famous Repasz Band has announced a new Endowment Fund to help the group continue its popular slate of free local concerts. “Never before has the band’s existence to continue been directly threatened,” says Repasz treasurer and past president Nancy Eischeid. “Previous to COVID, our 10-18 concerts every summer provided
“What book has given me greater pleasure in the last five years? Or in the last twenty?” asked writer Roald Dahl some decades ago. He was referring to True Grit, a 1968 bestseller that was successfully adapted twice for the movies. That absolutely enchanting book — which legendary editor Robert Gottlieb said needed virtually no changes
Even if 2025 were a leap year, February would still be our shortest month. In honor of that abridged timespan, Webb’s Weird Words herewith presents a look at shortened words. For our purposes here, we won’t cover abbreviations, of which we have thousands — nearly all requiring periods and/or capital letters (a.m., NASA, B.C., LOL,
The C. S. Lewis Institute is coming to Central PA. With branches in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — along with 11 other states, plus such countries as Ireland, Japan and Kenya — CSLI was named for the British writer whose radio talks and bestselling novels made him one of the 20th century’s most beloved Christian figures.
