What is the word for an experience that you have to live through in order to fully understand or appreciate, such as having a child or parenting? My Google-Fu is failing me. Thanks!
posted by mcarthey at 8:20 AM - 32 answers

As a part of my academic research, I'm digging into the Edison Papers, and finding (mostly handwritten) archival materials from the late 19th century. I'm embarrassed to admit I can barely read the cursive handwriting of Edison and his colleagues. Does anyone know where I might find samples of 19th-century script to help me learn how to read this archival material? [more inside]
posted by Monsters at 5:11 PM - 8 answers

What are some of your favorite novels under (or around) 150 pages? [more inside]
posted by ieatwords at 3:16 PM - 55 answers

Okay, fantasy novel ID two-fer. Book One: people live in villages that are suspended on the side of an enormous cliff and a girl is born who has wings. Book Two: set in a world made up of bits of earth suspended in a void, cape-fighters, a spider-god.... [more inside]
posted by otolith at 1:02 PM - 7 answers

What are the pros and cons of learning more than one language? How can one adapt to a multi-language world? [more inside]
posted by Knigel at 10:19 PM - 25 answers

What words for food are also words for affection? [more inside]
posted by bardic at 8:47 PM - 64 answers

I'm looking for the name of a writer who writes about perfumes in a really beautiful way. [more inside]
posted by bunny hugger at 4:57 PM - 15 answers

Need recommendations of quality chick lit books. [more inside]
posted by mikoroshi at 12:09 PM - 19 answers

Does this Dewey decimal-like numbering system seen in requirements documents, site maps and any numbered system where you don't have to rewrite the numbers every time an update is made and looks like 1.2.1.1 have a name? [more inside]
posted by joelf at 11:27 AM - 10 answers

What exactly is the difference between "vengeance" and "revenge"?
posted by Chrysostom at 11:02 AM - 25 answers

A friend and I are looking for a certain word... it would be related to loving something so much it makes you go weak. Both of us believe there's a word for this but we can't quite put our finger on it. It could possibly be used in this context: "Chocolate is my _____." [more inside]
posted by simplethings at 8:57 AM - 66 answers

(Pro)sefilter: want to sell prose. Looking for advice. [more inside]
posted by schmichael at 7:23 AM - 5 answers

Copyright question: if I'm doing a report for school can I copy and paste someone elses graph into my report if I cite them? [more inside]
posted by anonymous at 10:12 PM - 17 answers

I'm struggling to remember the title of a book I read in the 1980s, which had a real-world twist: hidden within the narrative was the location of a spot in the USA where some sort of treasure or reward money was located. [more inside]
posted by squid patrol at 9:35 PM - 9 answers

Are storks traditionally known for giving themselves enemas? In Don Quixote there is a line about learning certain lessons from different animals - one of which is the enema from the stork. [more inside]
posted by Yiggs at 7:46 PM - 8 answers

Where's Cissylvania? [more inside]
posted by madcaptenor at 6:38 PM - 15 answers

GrammarFilter: A friend and I have been discussing this construction: "would have had to go" vs. "would have had to have gone." It seems they are both correct and are almost always interchangeable, so it would seem the former, simpler version is preferable. Thoughts, explanations, examples otherwise? Are they both correct? [more inside]
posted by Badasscommy at 5:43 PM - 10 answers

Novels where political extremism is an underlying theme. [more inside]
posted by thesailor at 9:34 AM - 32 answers

Help me find a quote I have forgotten. [more inside]
posted by Acacia at 10:00 PM - 1 answers

Where can I find more goofy, archaic terms? I'm writing a comic book where one of the characters is an upper-class fellow from the 1800s, and I want to put some outdated slang in his mouth, along the lines of the phrases Mr. Burns sometimes spouts on the Simpsons: flimshaw, goldbrickers, slug-a-beds, aeromail, autogyro, petroleum distillate... [more inside]
posted by gern at 2:53 PM - 17 answers