Mim's the Word

  Like so many of his fans, I knew Edward Koren as a cartoonist for The New Yorker. But I also got to know him a bit better when he illustr...

  “I claim sanctuary!” In medieval England, there was no more powerful a cry. The social station of the person was of no consequence; what...

Several years ago I had the chance to interview David McCullough. Like many other Americans, I had long been under the spell of his voice an...

Now that the US government has done a word purge of “alien” from its immigration policy manual, replacing it with “noncitizen” and “undocume...

  ( Wikimedia Commons photo by Todorov.petar.p ) Have you hugged…somebody today? (The expression began as “Have you hugged your kid today?...

                                                ‘Civil’ comes back in flower Among its many other triumphs, Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem w...

When this is over, we will emerge changed in many ways, and our language will not be immune. Perhaps “pre-pan” and “post-pan” will e...