The Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye (or Y Gelli in Welsh) was the starting point for the international “book towns” movement, now made up of about 20 towns around the world. Boasting 41 bookstores for only 1500 inhabitants (that’s about one bookstore for every 37 residents), Hay-on-Wye also plays host to the annual Hay Festival, a [...]

Although the name William is very common, there does seem to be a preponderance of poets with that name, including many from my list of favorites. Did the parents of Blake, Wordsworth, and Yeats hope that their sons would grow up to be great poets in the same mold as their famous predecessor, William Shakespeare? [...]

This is the fourth entry in our series of IKEA lists. I have great affection for the wonderful epithets Shakespeare coined for his plays; his linguistic dexterity and wit seem to shine most brightly when he is putting these put-downs in the mouths of his characters. There are too many to list from his plays (see [...]

For some reason, hair salons, more than most other kinds of businesses, tend to come up with names involving bad puns. There’s the ever-popular Curl Up and Dye, which appears in numerous cities, and many other names involving plays on words like cut, snip, shear, and head. Here for your amusement are some actual salons [...]

Recently I read an article about the history of the San Francisco neighborhood I live in, Glen Park. In its early days it was known as “Little Switzerland” because of its hilly terrain and the presence of several Swiss-owned dairies in the area. This inspired me to find other examples of Switzerland comparisons, and I found [...]

There seems to be a trend lately of parents choosing names for their children that may be considered more traditional. I think this may be a backlash against decades of popular baby names that were newly coined or given new spellings. It’s interesting to see that there are some names that remain popular from one [...]

When traveling in foreign countries, it’s always helpful to know a few stock phrases and key words even (or especially) if you don’t speak the language fluently. One useful phrase is “I’m sorry, I don’t speak [insert language here].” Although it may be difficult to master even that much of the language, it may make [...]

This is the third entry in our series of IKEA lists.

Alhagen Name for: A basket Could be: A license plate for an ice cream fan Brallis Name for: A clothes-hanger Could be: A license plate for a “natural” woman Brygd Name for: A pitcher Could be: A license plate for a dentist Espnäs Name for: A knob Could be: A license plate for [...]

This is the second entry in our series of IKEA lists. Another trend I noticed among the IKEA names was that a lot of the one-word names seemed tailor-made for would-be superheroes. There was an attitude of action and identity implicit in these names that seemed perfect for these fledgling caped crusaders.

Bandora Old identity: Floor lamp New identity: [...]

The idea that there are dozens of Eskimo words for snow is (mostly) an urban myth, but in English, we have at least eight different terms for a snow crust. These are from the Glossary of Meteorology at the American Meteorological Society by way of Interesting Thing of the Day:

snow crust: the general term for [...]