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GERMANY’S BLACK FOREST HAS MORE THAN CAKE AND CUCKOO CLOCKS

The Black Forest got its name from the Romans, who found the woods so dark and dense that they named it Silva Nigra, a “black forest” that suggested otherworldliness. After serving as Germany’s biggest source of lumber during the Industrial Revolution, the Black Forest’s 2,320 square miles have thinned to a shadow of their former impenetrability. Today, the area is a mix of forested mountains laced with river valleys, vineyards, lush meadows, streams, and towns with ubiquitous flower boxes overflowing with geraniums, says writer Beth Reiber. Measuring just 100 miles long and up to 25 miles wide, the forest…

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by David DeVoss

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The Latest Book Review

GOBSMACKED! THE BRITISH INVASION OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

Publisher Princeton University Press | Author Ben Yagoda | Reviewed by Nancy Wigston

When we hear “British Invasion” many of us remember the rock groups who appeared out of the UK in the 60s and 70s to dominate American Top Forty stations—the Beatles, the Stones, or the Animals. But not Ben Yagoda. This professor emeritus of English and Journalism from the University of Delaware puts quite a different spin on the term, notes Nancy Wigston. During years teaching in London, Yagoda noticed an emerging new British invasion, not as loud as rock music, but to a wordsmith like Yagoda, equally enveloping. Not only are Britishisms coming, they’re already part of the argot to varying degrees in North America, India, Southeast Asia and Oceana. The emergence of words like gobsmacked and plonk (cheap wine) as well as twee and the Scottish term kerfuffle are in common use thanks to comic Mike Myers. Read More