Author Archives: Verla Viera

In addition to the A Word a Day email that I’ve mentioned before, I get a Spanish Palabra¹ del día message². PDD takes a different form than AWAD, consisting of a longer narrative about the word’s history. Because English has … Continue reading →

I’m currently reading The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases, by Michael Capuzzo. I’ve been a fan of murder mysteries, true crime, and legal dramas for as long as I … Continue reading →

Now you know what The Professor’s life is like, living with me. It must have been Word Week in the funny papers

Today’s musing starts out with another one of those words that I see just frequently enough to think I should remember what it means, but not frequently enough to actually remember: solecism. My brain tries to make it mean something … Continue reading →

After 47 years, it has become apparent that I have malocclusion—irregular contact of opposing teeth in the upper and lower jaws when I close my mouth. Known colloquially as bad bite, the term malocclusion itself was invented around 1885-1890, when the … Continue reading →