Richard’s Ramblings

Most people probably remember that homonyms are words that have the same sound and spelling but have different meaning (”fair” means reasonable and also refers to a carnival). However, heteronyms — which I certainly don’t remember being covered in English 101 — also differ in pronunciation.
Heteronyms are sometimes used in puzzles. Yesterday I noticed a [...]

Six months ago, Joey Vento (the owner of Geno’s Steaks in Philadelphia) put up a sign in the restaurant that reads, “This is America — when ordering speak English.” He states that he added the sign to encourage immigrants to learn the language.
Of course, a bunch of whiny, immigrant activists have labeled his actions racist. [...]

I was in a meeting recently in which one of the participants referred to China and Mexico as Third World countries because of their economic status. Since my recollection of the definition of the numbered worlds reflected an established politically democratic system as the leading criteria, I needed clarification.
According to the open Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, [...]

Did you ever notice how screwed up the English language really is? At first it seems so straightforward, but the endless list of exceptions makes it one of the most (if not THE most) complicated language in the world to learn.
Let’s start simply with the letter “A”. In school children are taught about both the [...]