Topics

Sep

Wild and Woolly Wordplay

by Joyce McGreevy on September 24, 2018

A red panda in Wellington, New Zealand reminds the writer that animal idioms continues to influence everyday language. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Red pandas, like this one at the Wellington Zoo, New Zealand, have influenced human language.
© Joyce McGreevy

Animal Idioms Around the World

Animal idioms have burrowed into everyday wordplay since Moses was a pup. It doesn’t take a fisheye lens to get the picture. Animal words prowl the planet.

You don’t have to be a bookworm or wear a deerstalker hat to ferret out examples. A simple mouse click ponies up swarms of animal buzzwords.

Fledgling Phrases

Animal idioms are cross-cultural and nest in every language. Some are as timeless as a phoenix rising from the ashes. Others are newly hatched. Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 1 Comment

Nature Discovery/Proverbs & Sayings/Worldwide Sites

Sep

Whose Trip Are You Taking?

by Joyce McGreevy on September 17, 2018

People at a food stand in London remind a writer that travel tips and travel advice don’t outrank personal travel discoveries. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Go to that “great little place” or discover your own great little place–it’s your trip. (London)
© Joyce McGreevy

When Travel Tips Hit the Tipping Point

It begins innocently. The planning, the packing, a travel tip or two. “Roll, don’t fold, your clothes.” “If you’re heading to A, you might enjoy B and C.”

Now Sam and Kate are at the airport. They’re excited, eager to make personal travel discoveries on their very first trip overseas. New place, new people, new language, new food, new everything. They post a brief announcement on social media and get numerous “Likes.” Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 3 Comments

Art of Travel/Discoveries/Worldwide Sites

Sep

And Now For Something Completely Different—The Big Sur Fashion Show

by Meredith Mullins on September 10, 2018

Jamie Oksas dances in a fashion made of netting, rope, crayons, and shoe laces—a cultural encounter with community spirit at the Big Sur Fashion Show. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

The Big Sur Fashion Show is so much more than a fashion show.
(Designer, model, and dancer: Jamie Oksas)
© Meredith Mullins

A Cultural Encounter with the Spirit of Community

The Fashion Week buzz is brewing in Paris, New York, and London, where unsmiling models will soon walk briskly on catwalks with haughty disdain. But we, on the California Coast, are thousands of (metaphoric and real) miles away.

We’re at The Big Sur Fashion Show—a vibrant and unconventional celebration of artistic imagination. Read more...

Meredith Mullins 10 Comments

Cultural Encounters/USA

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