Merriam-Webster Just Added 1000+ Words

Always an entertaining read, Merriam-Webster just announced the words and phrases it’s adding to the dictionary this month. Among them are “throwing shade,” “side eye” and even “ghost”—not the spook, but the act of abruptly cutting off contact with a person. There are also a few less-timely additions, including “first world problem,” “riding shotgun” and “weak sauce.” Whatever your feelings on these latest inclusions, there’s …

AccuWeather and Spotify Launch “Climatune”

AccuWeather and Spotify have teamed up to make playlists that match the weather, no matter if you’re schvitzing or stomping through snow. The two companies undertook a year-long study comparing “85 billion anonymized streams on Spotify in over 900 cities” across the USA and analyzed that data to create the playlists. Evidently, sunny days encourage higher energy music, while (interestingly) snowy days seem to warrant …

Forgotten Black American Fashion Designers

Prompted by a Twitter thread from Claude Hector, Quartz has delved into the history of many forgotten black designers—and the iconic looks they’re responsible for. Like so much black history around the world, significant stories are simply not known. For example: Ann Lowe created Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding dress when she married JFK, and Zelda Wynn Valdes designed the blue satin Playboy “bunny suit.” Read more …