Category Archive

CNN: When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help. Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor’s roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, … Read More

BBC, for example

I don’t know what it is. But I bought it anyway. I went to this site, the SomethingStore: SomethingStore is a fun new website that operates simply: We will send you something, an item selected randomly among many things from our inventory, for $10 (free shipping) and you will find out what your something is when you receive it. What … Read More

You may feel differently, but I’m not about to bid on an Air Guitar owned by JFK.

Origin of the phrase "Logging On" This phrase’s predecessor was "logging in" (sometimes still used interchangeably). Back when mainframe computer operators used to go on shifts, they’d have to write everything they did in a paper log, beginning when they arrived. So when you log on to a computer today, you’re signing in.

Oh, Sue… She apologized today.

Where does that phrase come from?  Nobody knows: Another thing some people just can’t accept is that the origins of many common expressions will probably always remain a mystery. We know, for instance, what “the whole nine yards” means—the works, everything, the whole enchilada. But nobody knows where it comes from. Before you offer the definitive etymology of the expression, … Read More

Let’s hope it doesn’t catch on here… Reuters explains: Muslims in western India have been observing a bizarre ritual – they’ve been throwing their young children off a tall building to improve their health. The faithful have been observing the ritual at a shrine in Solapur, in western India’s Maharastra, for more than five hundred years. They believe it will … Read More