Though some bibliophiles are threatened by the advent of the digital book, I can’t help but love books in all their forms. There are times when I’d rather jump on the subway with a paperback, but there are also times I’m grateful not to have to put down a 2-pound copy of The Count of Monte […]

Twists & Turns of Phrase If you’re riding shotgun these days, you’re probably in the front passenger seat of your buddy’s car. Origins: But most of the lore agrees that this term dates back to the Wild West and refers to the person who would sit next to the driver of a stage coach, protecting whatever […]

Well, it’s been a diuturnity since I last posted, but the radio silence it finally over. School is now out forever (or at least until I get the itch to take another class), and I”m glad to be blogging again. So without further ado here’s this week’s Vest-Pocket Vocabulary, which is all about radio silence.

Well, it’s pretty busy in Word Blog land, which is why I haven’t been quite so diligent about posting new entries. I’m taking courses in digital publishing and scholarly publishing these days, and showing up for work, too, so there hasn’t been as much time to hang out here. When I finish these courses in […]

I’ve spent the long weekend living it up: I rode my bike up to Kleinburg, checked out the McMichael Collection, ate extremely well, and I’m taking today off work. This is certainly the perfect word to describe my decadent 5-day weekend…

I’ve been flipping through a full-colour cookbook of vegetarian pasta dishes this afternoon, trying to think of what to make for dinner. I suspect that has biased my choice of Vest-Pocket Vocabulary this week.

A person who opens a can of worms tries to solve a problem, but in doing so creates a lot of new unanticipated complications.

For some reason I always see the image of the snake-in-a-can gag whenever I hear this turn of phrase, but this is clearly just my unusual brain at work. So I wonder just where this saying does come from…

Biblioma′nia, n. a rage for curious books.

Word in the Wild: Recent studies show that readers of the Word Blog suffer disproportionately from bibliomania.

When something sells like hotcakes it sells quickly and in large quantities.

I like a hotcake as much as the next person, but do they really sell that well? Yes, they do, or at least they did at county fairs in the 1800s…

Ap′ophthegm, n. a wise saying.

Word in the Wild: Yogi Berra never seemed to run out of apophthegms.