Montreal’s rich Yiddish heritage has an unlikely champion
Yiddish, and the rich literary output of the last century in Montreal when the language thrived here, has a new and unlikely champion. Chantal Ringuet,…
language
Word Nerd: The crossword crossroads
We have just passed the centenary of the creation of the crossword puzzle. December 21, 1913, the New York World featured a new type of…
Word Nerd: Original blackmailers being blackmailed?
“Scottish independence; Navy frigate contract will be held after U.K. split vote,” read an August 2012 headline in The Scotsman. This story related how lucrative…
Word Nerd: What we lose when we lose a language
The adjective “endangered” is usually twinned with the noun “species” as the onslaught of civilization has brought about a diminution in the planet’s biodiversity. But…
Word Nerd: The pure gold of synonym chains
Although in the Middle Ages it is unlikely that gold fetched more than $1,500 an ounce, we still should pity the Middle Ages alchemists who…