Ideas | The Word
Though we think of proverbs as hoary old chestnuts, a new book argues that we’re minting new ones all the time.
The Word
“Meta” has become a perfect meta-commentary on the consciously self-referential age we live in.
The Word
A new collection of essays edited by Michael Adams explores the scope of invented languages.
Ideas | The Word
Can the president make an insult into a selling point? History suggests that political shorthands like these can sometimes be rehabilitated — but that it’s not always easy.
The Word
A really good hoax requires both strategy and tactics — luring the subjects in and getting them to believe something just at the edge of credulity, before springing the “gotcha.”
The Word
Computers vs. humans hits the next frontier as our brainy pastimes are falling, one by one, to silicon-based competitors.
The word
In a new book, “Vernacular Eloquence,” English professor Peter Elbow makes a case for letting how we speak inform how we write.
The true story of surgery; women and Islam; and the art of the art assignment.
Does feeling guilty make you a leader; analytical thought hinders faith; more testosterone, less compassion; the I’m-not-a-racist effect; and do justices change their minds?
