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The Quick 14: The Banned Words List

Every year, Lake Superior State University releases its banned words list based on overused words and phrases for the year. In case you missed which words you should eradicate from your lingo, here they are: 1. Viral. 2. Epic. 3. Fail. 4. Wow Factor. 5. A-ha Moment. 6. Back story. 7. BFF. 8. Man up. 9. Refudiate. 10. Mama Grizzlies. 11. The American People 12. I'm Just Sayin' 13. Facebook/Google as a verb 14. Live Life to the Fullest You can check out the reasons behind the... READ ON

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The Quick 10: It's Raining Cats and Dogs (and fish and spiders and eels)

There’s some scary stuff going on around the world – hundreds of birds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas, Louisiana and Sweden; thousands of fish popping up glassy-eyed from the Arkansas River. There are all kinds of theories out there, but there’s actually some precedence for when animals fall from the sky. Here are 10 other times the freaky phenomenon has happened, although many of these can be explained by tornadoes and similar weather. 1. Jellyfish, but not jellyfish. Bath, England, saw... READ ON

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The Quick 10: 10 Amazing Discoveries by Kids

It’s all over the news the past couple of days: some astronomers spend a lifetime looking for a supernova, but a 10-year-old-girl found one on her first try. Here’s Kathryn Gray’s story and the stories of nine other talented (or lucky) kids who have made important discoveries at shockingly young ages. 1. Kathryn Gray was checking out some images her dad had taken on New Year’s Eve, comparing them to previous pictures of the same location to see if anything had changed. Spotting a difference,... READ ON

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The Quick 10: 10 Supreme Court Scandals

It's no secret that I love Robert Schnakenberg's Secret Lives series, so when I recently spotted Secret Lives of the Supreme Court, I snapped it up. There are plenty of fascinating tidbits to share, but let's start with the scandalous ones. Here are 10 of the biggest shockers to ever rock the bench. 1. Thus far, only one Supreme Court justice has ever been ousted before his time: John Rutledge, who served in 1795. Why? Simply put, he was losing his mind. He had slowly become unhinged ever since his... READ ON

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The Quick 10 - Suck on This: 10 Tidbits About Candy Canes

I’m a sucker for just about anything peppermint. This time of year is bad news because every cookie, candy and ice cream comes out with a special edition holiday flavor that invariably includes peppermint, and I think I need to try them all. Of course, the classic peppermint candy this time of year is that red and white striped shepherd’s hook you see adorning trees everywhere. Here are 10 tasty tidbits about the unofficial candy of Christmas. 1. Legend has it that the first candy cane in the hooked... READ ON

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The Quick 10: 10 Alternate Versions of "A Visit from St. Nicholas"

"A Visit from St. Nicholas" is one of the most parodied pieces ever written - more than 1,000 versions have been penned by professional writers and amateurs alike. Here are a few of them, but rest assured there's a version out there for just about any profession or interest you can think of. 1. My personal favorite: the Hemingway-inspired version by writer James Thurber. It first appeared in The New Yorker in 1927. Sample text: "It was the night before Christmas. The house was very quiet. No... READ ON

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The Quick 10: Burpy, Hickey, Chesty and Other Alternate Dwarf Names

Can you name all of the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? It's said that the trick to getting them all is to remember that there are two that start with "D," two that start with "S" and three that are emotions - you know, Dizzy, Dippy, Snoopy, Scrappy, Woeful, Wistful and Gloomy. That's what they could have been named, anyway, if production had gone a bit differently. Disney and co. went through dozens of names before deciding on the seven we know today. In honor of the movie's 73rd... READ ON

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The Quick 10: Merriam-Webster's Top Ten Words of 2010

As a self-proclaimed word nerd, I love when the word of the year is announced. You may have seen the #1 word floating about the Web, but here's the rest of the list as determined by Merriam-Webster.com. They base their picks on words that have seen more traffic than in previous years; they can typically be tied to events that happened throughout the last 12 months. 1. Austerity: enforced or extreme economy. Merriam-Webster's editor-at-large, Peter Sokolowski, says this was the most unusual looked-up... READ ON

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The Quick 10: Happy Birthday, Beethoven!

Happy Birthday to Beethoven! At least, we think it’s his birthday (see #1). To celebrate, let’s all bash someone over the head with a chair, stop washing our clothes and drink way too much coffee. Read on to read about those habits and seven more unusual facts about the great composer. 1. There’s no official documentation to commemorate Beethoven’s b-day, but he was baptized on December 17, leading most experts to believe he was born the previous day since the baptism usually took place the... READ ON

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The Quick 10: 10 Sequels to A Christmas Carol

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of the best-known Christmas tales in history. It’s one of my favorites – long before I could read, I repeatedly watched Mickey’s Christmas Carol, the Disney adaptation that featured Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge (of course). Dickens’ original wraps up pretty quickly, though – basically everyone lives happy ever after without any real detail. That’s where these other authors picked up – here’s how 10 of them imagined how the story continued. 1.... READ ON