Category: Feature

• The “arm” bone’s connected to the…”armada” bone?

  Remember that “armada” of warships Trump said was being sent towards the Korean peninsula as a warning to North Korea? It turns out it was actually headed in the opposite direction. Oops. Outside of history class and the rhetoric of war, we don’t hear the word armada too often, but the word is related to…

  John Kelly

  April 19, 2017

  Feature

• The root of “jungle”: It’s a desert out there?

  Today in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, a closely watched “jungle primary” is taking place to fill the seat left by Republican Tom Price, who is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In a jungle primary, a more colorful name for a blanket primary, all candidates seeking an office run against each other at…

  John Kelly

  April 18, 2017

  Feature

• The chaos of “gas”

  We’ve been sick with the word gas lately. First, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad horrifically attacked, not for the first time, his own people with chemical weapons, likely sarin gas. Then, he “fake-newsed” the horrific act by calling it a fabrication. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer—bizarrely, perversely—told reporters Hitler never gassed his people like…

  John Kelly

  April 14, 2017

  Feature

• United Airlines might learn a thing or two from the origin of “accommodate”

  United Airlines is under fire after guards violently dragged a passenger from a flight the airline overbooked on Monday. Its CEO, Oscar Munoz, only made matters worse when he apologized for “having to re-accommodate these customers.” United is clearly making up its own, all-too-self-accommodating definition of accommodate. So, let’s help them out: The history and…

  John Kelly

  April 11, 2017

  Feature

• Pepsi, Gibraltar, and other names in the news

  From soda ads to ancient military strongholds, this week featured many newsworthy names.  Let’s have a look at a few—and, as always, their origins.

  John Kelly

  April 7, 2017

  Feature