Salon.com has a cool review of Arika Okrent’s book In the Land of Invented Languages (2009). By invented languages, she means “a language with its own fully constructed vocabulary and grammar, which is potentially or hypothetically capable of replacing the flawed, irregular, piecemeal “natural” languages virtually all of us speak.” Here’s a fun […]

Want to know what kinds of jokes ancient Romans enjoyed? Well, you’re in luck! Prof. Mary Beard has just published a collected volume of more than 260 jokes, some 1,600 years old. According to Beard, the volume explodes the popular stereotype of Romans as “pompous, bridge-building toga wearers.” What comic figures are the jokes […]

Thus, the anecdote goes, began-and ended-the (über)short story by Ernest Hemingway, the fascinating result of a $10 bet. This was the principal motivation behind Smith Magazine‘s call for memoirs in six words; eventually, the best entries were published in the bestseller, “Not Quite What I Was Planning.” In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, […]