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A few months ago, Roger Helmer, a former British member of the European Parliament, went on Twitter to complain about the use of the term “U.K. variant”. Stop referring the new coronavirus variant as originating in the U.K., Helmer tweeted. “It was first identified in...

Some acronyms are so familiar that we can forget what they stand for. That can be a problem, if you dislike redundancy in communication. Consider two recent news items, each involving hard-to-get cash. One described a California man who received a stimulus payment on...

We can’t go to the movies now, but we’re watching (and re-watching) them more than ever. While global box office revenues fell by more than $30 billion in 2020, industry figures show that subscriptions to video streaming services hit 1.1 billion, up 26%. During the...

Communicating with family isn’t always easy. That’s one reason why there’s a thriving greeting cards industry. In the gooey sentiments business, this is the motherlode. According to the Greeting Card Association, Mother’s Day is the third-largest holiday for the...

During the past year of increased idle time, many people have picked up new skills. Apparently, a common one is pharmacology. I don’t know where they’ve obtained their degrees, but it sure looks like a bunch of folks have become instant experts on efficacy rates,...

The other day, I hovered over a movie on Netflix and was trying to decide whether to watch it. So I quickly checked its rating on Rotten Tomatoes to see if it was worth my time. Certified fresh or for the trash bin? Sure, I could have given the movie a few minutes and...

The other day, for a brief time, Volkswagen of America posted a partial news release that announced it was switching the “k” in its name to a “t” and becoming Voltswagen. The supposed re-branding would signify a strong focus on electric vehicles. The release promptly...

A typo may be an accident, but it’s no crime. Unless you’re a Long Island thief who’s trying to avoid prison. Last year, CNN reported on a scheme by Robert Berger, who had been charged with attempted grand larceny and possession of stolen property. When Berger was due...

In Montreal, an independent bookstore owner got into a public spat with the building’s landlord. Fortunately, the tale had a happy ending. But before it got to that point, a smarmy comment by one of the two parties irritated the heck out of me. Stephen Welch, who owns...

If you want to keep your information safe, passwords, firewalls and encryption can all do the trick. But do you think that will protect your messages for 324 years? Here’s what did, for a letter dated July 31, 1697. That missive used a technique called letterlocking,...