Q. If you like opera – or, you know, watch cartoons, TV shows, or movies – you’ve likely heard arias from the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). You might have heard Kiri Te Kanawa singing ‘O mio babbino caro’ – from Puccini’s ‘Gianni Schicchi’ – in  ‘A Room with a

Q. Who are some well-known authors with pseudonyms? . A. For a litany of reasons – some personal, some driven by brutal societal biases –  authors have long tossed their birth names for noms de plume. Some of these pseudonyms have been adopted for entire writing careers, others for an

Q. Work Trip. But make it Succession, The Diplomat, Emily in Paris, Suits. The bad news? You’ll be travelling with your psychopathic Dad Boss, treacherous, traumatized siblings, duplicitous husband, client-friend whose boyfriend you secretly love, or the congenitally suspicious overling who doesn’t know you faked your entire Harvard Law School

Q. Happy National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day. Are you one of the besotted? If so, are you Team Smooth (🤟🏽) or Team Crunch? Are you PB + or – J? Do you prefer your peanut butter straight-up, or happily nestled in chocolate, cookies, or pie? What are some nuggets that

Q. To what degree are the smells we like – and deeply dislike! – culturally unique? . A. It’s a question that interested a 2022 research team from Oxford University and Karolinska Institute. Their approach? Ask 235 people from a global sample – one that included ‘four hunter-gatherer groups and

Q. If the TV overlords were kind enough to keep their feet off the gas during movie credits, we might notice one name coming up over and over again for musical score: Howard Shore. Who is he? . A. Composer Howard Shore is responsible for scoring movies from ‘Silence of

Q. Want to see a teenager cringe? Encourage Mum and/or Dad to throw in some ‘hip’ slang during carpool. “Oof. That sounds sus. He just salty because of your drip. Bet!” . 🤦🏽‍♀️ . How to rescue horrified teens from parental slangicide? . A. Perhaps the best slang words are

Q. Many of us have specific souvenirs we are eager to bring back from specific countries. What are the most sought-after travel treasures? . A. It’s a question that the Club Med research team investigated in 2021. What did they find? . Top Souvenirs by Country Research • Antigua and

Q. How do the words we use affect our impressions of people, places, ideas or things that are ‘old?’ . A. Kintsugi. It’s a gorgeous word used to describe the Japanese practice of repairing broken ceramics with gold-dusted tree sap lacquer. No tossing that vase because it’s broken in half.

Q. Happy Valentine’s Day! And prosperity, happiness, and good health to you as we usher in the Year of the Dragon. What are some signs of good fortune to mark Lunar New Year? . A. One of the most commonly offered symbols of good fortune and abundance is the orange,