Q. Over the last few years, museums have been active in bringing their artworks online, armed with key facts and historic insights. It’s a great viewing opportunity for those of us who can’t be there in person. As we visit online collections, museums also have a chance to see which

Q. Do you ever find yourself just slightly off in your conversational rhythm on video chat? Even just one-on-one with people you know well? In person, you’re back and forth with ease – mellow in casual chat, more rat-tat-tat when the topic is exciting. Yet, shift to video and you

Q. Overheard: “Biz Dev is my jam!” How does that sentence make you feel? i. Cool! Right. Biz Dev. Jam. ii. Meh. iii. Eww. How did the latter phrase – ‘my jam’ – come to represent something the speaker particularly likes? . A. Being ‘jammed’ can be associated with unpleasantness

Q. What are some of the more unusual meanings that the Victorians assigned to flowers? . A. For 1800s floral bliss and horror, look to Kate Greenaway, an illustrator and author born 1846 in Hoxton, England. Alongside the nursery rhymes and bedtime tunes in the Treasury of Kate Greenaway, you’ll

Q. So many cultures are rich in food-related slang. What are some English examples from the last century? . A. Here’s a sampling of food and drink slang words from A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues. Past and Present. First compiled by Editors John S. Farmer and W.E. Henley

Q. If there is one type of book we read over and over, it’s picture books. As young children, as parents, as sentimental sorts of all ages. Which English language picture books have been consistently most popular over the last decades? . A. Tracking all sales in all modes in

Q. You have one word to describe yourself. What do you choose? What would others say? . A. It can feel impossible to describe ourselves in one word. Much harder than describing others, particularly those we know at a distance. But, if pressed, what would we choose for ourselves? Last

Q. What are some sweets that have names that are misleading and/or radically undersell their deliciousness? . A. Boston Cream Pie Sounds good enough, but two problems: it’s not pie, it’s cake. And the rounded layers of cake nestle custard, not ‘cream’. How did the official state dessert of Massachusetts

Q. What were the original, screenplay, or code names of some well-known movies? . A. Code Name X Those who live in movie towns are used to seeing ‘movie filming here’ arrows with runic symbols or odd code names. How long can they keep superfans at bay? Warner Brothers tried

Q. How did post-wedding bliss travel come to be called a ‘honeymoon’? . A. Some say the just-wedded bliss of the ‘honeymoon’ – or the ‘hony moone’ as it was called in Olde English – gets its name from the sweetness of honey and the short-lived prominence of the moon.