Sep 11, 2015

Suffix Ough

English is such a fun language. There are seven ways to pronounce the suffix 'ough'


  • dough              doe
  • tough               tuff
  • hiccough         hiccup
  • bough              bow
  • ought               awt
  • cough              coff
  • through           thru

Five Peanut Butter Facts

Grand Saline, Texas, holds the record for the largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which weighed in at 1,342 pounds.

More than half of the American peanut crop is used to make peanut butter and the US is the world’s third-highest peanut-producing nation, after China and India.

It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.

Peanut butter sales were confined to regional markets until the development of hydrogenation in the 1920s. Hydrogenation stops the separation of peanut oil and solids by raising the melting point so that peanut butter is a solid at room temperature.

Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the top of your mouth.

Children's Logic

A virgin forest is a forest where the hand of man has never set foot.

The spinal column is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom.

The word trousers is an uncommon noun because it is singular at the top and plural at the bottom.

Heteronym, Homograph, Homonym, and Homophone

A homograph is a word that has the same spelling as another word, but has a different meaning, such as lead (to go in front of) and lead (a metal). The ending –graph means drawn or written, so a homograph has the same spelling.

Heteronyms are a type of homograph that are also spelled the same and have different meanings, but sound different, such as above or bow (tied with ribbon)
bow (of a boat).

A homophone is a word that has the same sound as another word, but is spelled differently and has a different meaning, such as to, two, and too. The ending –phone means sound or voice, so a homophone has the same pronunciation.

A homonym means either a word that is spelled like another, but has a different sound and meaning (homograph) or a word that sounds like another, but has a different spelling and meaning (homophone).
OR
A word that is spelled and pronounced like another, but has a different meaning (homograph and homophone), like by (near) and buy (to purchase).

Strictly speaking both homographs and homophones are homonyms, but homonyms can be either or both a homograph and homophone. Heteronyms are always homographs, but homographs are not always heteronyms.

Poisonous vs. Venomous

If you bite it and you die, it is poisonous.
If it bites you and you die, it is venomous.

Cling Wrap Hack

Did you ever come across a bowl which plastic wrap never seems to cling to? Here is an easy fix, put your finger in water and run it across the outside surface and rim of the bowl. Plastic wrap has a substance much like gelatin that becomes sticky on contact with water and this quick trick takes advantage of that reaction.

Wordology, Justiciable, Moot, and Unripe

Justiciability is one of several criteria that the United States Supreme Court use to make a judgment. In order for an issue to be justiciable (liable to be tried in court) by a United States federal court, all of the following conditions must be met.
The parties must not be seeking an advisory opinion.

There must be an actual controversy between the parties, meaning that the parties cannot agree to a lawsuit where all parties seek the same particular judgment from the court (known as a friendly suit); the parties must each be seeking a different outcome.

The question must be neither unripe nor moot.
   An unripe question is one for which there is not yet at least a threatened injury to the plaintiff, or where all available judicial alternatives have not been exhausted.
   A moot question is one for which the potential for an injury to occur has ceased to exist, or where the injury has been removed.

Twinkies Facts

They were invented in 1932 by James Alexander Dewar. The first Twinkie held banana cream, though banana rationing during World War II forced the switch to vanilla cream, now the official Twinkie flavor.

Top Ten Books

From the New York Times 2015

41George W. Bush 
10% Happier Dan Harris 
13 Hours Mitchell Zuckoff 
America Dinesh D'Souza 
Blood Feud Edward Klein 
Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 
David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell 
Duty Robert M. Gates 
Flash Boys Michael Lewis 
Hard Choices Hillary Rodham Clinton 
Humans of New York Brandon Stanton 
Killing Patton Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard 
One Nation Ben Carson with Candy Carson 
The Future of the Mind Michio Kaku
Things That Matter Charles Krauthammer 
Thrive Arianna Huffington 
Uganda Be Kidding Me Chelsea Handler 
Unbroken Laura Hillenb
What If Randall Munroe 
Yes Please Amy Poehler