Monthly Archives: November 2008

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving Day

Today is a national holiday in the United States, known as Thanksgiving Day.  I talked about Thanksgiving in a couple of podcasts here and here.  To give thanks means to be thankful for something, to appreciate and be grateful for … Continue reading

Posted in Life in the United States | 30 Comments

Celebrity Contract Riders

An interesting website that is often mentioned in the media is The Smoking Gun. This website gets interesting and often confidential (secret) documents from the government, police, and the courts by using the Freedom of Information Act. The Freedom of … Continue reading

Posted in Life in the United States | 4 Comments

What’s Up? What Happened? What’s the Matter? What’s Going On?

QUESTION: Raul from Mexico wants to know what the difference is among these phrases: What happened? / What’s up? / What’s the matter? / What’s going on? ANSWER: “What’s up?” can be used in two ways. One common way is … Continue reading

Posted in Language & Terms | 28 Comments

Barack Obama – 44th President of the United States

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will become the first minority (non-white) American to be the president of the United States. If you had asked me two years ago–or even a year ago–whether I thought an African American could get … Continue reading

Posted in News and Current Events | 47 Comments

Election Day 2008

Today is Election Day in the United States.  Normally, the first Tuesday of November is an election day every year for different political offices (positions) at the state and local level.  Every four years, however, we have a national election … Continue reading

Posted in Life in the United States | 12 Comments