A Jonathan Swift poem? Norse mythology? A mistranslation from the Greek? Shoddy thatched roof craftsmanship? Where does the phrase “raining cats and dogs” come from anyway? (Part 2 of our 2-post investigation)
Thatched roofs? Unsavory Elizabethan street sanitation practices? A 1652 Richard Brome play? Where does the phrase “raining cats and dogs” come from anyway?
Once upon a time, I used to use Saturday mornings to post funny things my then four-year-old daughter said. She still says a lot of funny…
Every once in a while my cat does something that perfectly illustrates the meaning of a word. It’s his superpower. This week, the word he chose was contentment.
Dateline: March 28, 2012 The Five-Year-Old, under her breathe: “[mild expletive, mild expletive], our phone is broken. [mild expletive, mild expletive].” I knew the day when The…
I find it fascinating to catch glimpses of what we were up to five years ago. This week, it’s Daddyo’s turn to be in the spotlight.…
Sometime last year, The Five-Year-Old discovered the highly informative children’s book series “The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That.” The books relay all kinds of fun facts about the natural world in a Seussian rhyme scheme. The lively presentation has convinced The Five-Year-Old that words that rhyme have some special connection, if only she can find it. Recently, my daughter realized that kitten rhymes with Britain. So naturally she wanted to know, “Mommyo, did kittens get their name in Britain?”
Thanks for turning in for another special holiday edition of Caterpickles thinking too hard about holiday songs. This week, we’re wondering just what it means to “troll an ancient Yuletide carol.”
There’s nothing like seeing the lyrics of traditional holiday songs projected in giant letters on a screen in a school auditorium for making you realize just how weird they are. I mean, there I stood, trilling merrily about jingle bells and sleigh rides when all of a sudden I realized I had absolutely no idea what “bells on bobtails ring” even meant.
What’s the difference between thee, thou, and thy? In a nutshell, the job they do in your typical archaic sentence.
