This one is strictly for the birds. Or rather, bird lovers. Of course, many Webb readers already feel that these word-columns do indeed qualify for that opening bird-idiom — which means “worthless, stupid or completely undesirable” (thefreedictionary.com). But many of us sometimes geek out over vocab, semantics and even etymology. And if, like me, you
Here in Webb’s “Weird Words” slot, we like themes. Indeed, over the past 85 installments, we’ve selected oddball vocabulary based on animals, money, romance, Easter, Christmas, March madness, April Fools’ and even the presidential inauguration. We’ve covered long words, short words, hyphens, doublets, blends and “kangaroo words” — while side-stepping into such other linguistic areas
Two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four. I’ve been collecting weird vocabulary for roughly 20 years — culled from reading in books and articles, along with the occasional oddity in conversation, from Jeopardy or on the internet. (And sometimes, I just go fishing in one of my hard-copy dictionaries.) As you may have guessed, my list
“There isn’t an instruction manual for anything worthwhile.” And that includes poetry. Happily, Alison Malee’s literary output is glowingly accessible — and certainly worthwhile. The quote above is from her 2024 collection of poems, It Is All Equally Fragile; that’s the fourth book by this local author — a 2012 Loyalsock High School graduate who
In any decent dog film, it’s practically a given that the featured canine will die at the end. But how about a pooch-picture where death comes first? And where it’s actually the owner who passes? That would be “The Friend,” a dog movie that’s not just about dogs. In fact, with yet another stunning lead
