concise_dictionary

I'm an American living in a Dutch-speaking country and my husband and I are trying to come up with a name for our first son. We're probably going to be living here long-term, so we need a name that works in Dutch, but this boy is going to have half of his family in the U.S. and I want him to have a name that works in English too.

Maarten one of the only ones we both like. It's the Dutch version of "Martin" and is pronounced roughly the same: the "a" is just a little longer. So I think in-person introductions would not be too bad, but I worry a bit about people reading it for the first time. Do you think it would be a big deal?

When I say "talk to yourself," I mean either as an internal monologue or out loud. Do you use the second person ("you"), the first person ("I"), your name, or something else entirely?

I realized recently that I picture the year as a circle, and the year moves counter-clockwise. If you think about it in terms of the clock face, September starts at the 4. January is at the top, at 12. March starts around the 10. June starts at the 8. The summer is the biggest section. It's also the most clearly demarcated season, probably because it's always been my favorite.

3 of the seasons are colored faintly: summer is green, autumn is red/orange, winter is blue. For some reason, I don't picture spring as a distinct color, it just blends into the green part of summer.

The circular years are connected like a long metal spring or a very curly lock of hair. Also, I tend to feel like a n

I’ve been chatting with various Belgians these last two months about the holidays, and when they find out I’m American, a lot of them have said to me, “In the U.S., Thanksgiving is the big holiday, right? You don’t really celebrate Christmas,” and they seem very surprised when I say that Thanksgiving is a big holiday, but that Christmas is definitely also a really big deal there.

I lived in Germany for a while and I’ve talked to a lot of Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and French people about Christmas. I can’t remember any of those friends or acquaintances ever being surprised that Americans celebrate Christmas. More often than not, they talked about how their local traditions were becoming

Hi, everyone. I lived in Durango for 7 years, but that was a long time ago now. I’m currently trying to write a story that is set in Durango, and I want it to be accurate, but I’m having trouble remembering the names local Durango folks use for bits of the landscape, and I was wondering if you could help me.

What I mean is, Durango has so many ridges and mesas and moraines around it because of all the glaciation in the past (if I’m remembering my geology correctly) that people had more specific names for things than, "the ridge that runs along 550." And I feel like a lot those names are on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t quite reach them.

For instance, I feel like we used to call the

I just learned that the Belgian hand gesture for this involves tapping your temple with your index finger and then making a motion like you're catching a fly right in front of your forehead (as shown in this video). It's often accompanied by a short whistle.

I know in the U.S. people often make a spiral motion at their temple with an index finger. What do they do where you're from?

I am trying to figure out if I have weird expectations about this or not. To me, asking for "a bite" means a small bite, not the biggest one you can possibly take, but I'm currently having an argument with my boyfriend, because he seems to think that asking for a bite means he's entitled to half of whatever I'm eating.

So, what are your rules and expectations about sharing food with other people?

I'm a beginner, and I'm curious about how other people got started in bonsai, especially if you have been doing it for a while. Did you see a bonsai tree that grabbed you in person or in a picture, or did you learn about it from a friend, or something else entirely? What were the specific things about bonsai trees that got your attention and made you decide to get a tree of your own? When you got started, what did you think the balance would be between horticulture and art? What is the balance for you now? Before you started doing bonsai, did you pay attention to normal-sized trees? Do you pay attention to normal-sized trees now?

Obviously, you don't have to answer all of those questions. I

Hi u/invah! I just wanted to say thank you for all of the amazing stuff you have posted here this year. You've really helped me see myself and my complicated family more clearly. That is something I'm really grateful for, because it's helped me figure out a lot of things. I think I'm a much healthier person because of you. So: thank you! I hope the new year brings you lots of happiness and good things!

I took a medicine in the spring of 2011 that is known for making people's hair fall out, and (surprise, surprise) it made about one-third of my hair fall out. I stopped taking the medicine because it wasn't helping, and my hair started growing back once the medicine was out of my system. After a year and a half or so, it started to look more normal. I used to have really thick hair, so I still had a lot of hair left, even though I'd lost a third of it. But I put my hair up in a ponytail the other day and realized I have two lengths of wispy bits: really short fuzzy ones and then ones about an inch long, just like I did when I noticed it starting to re-grow. Is it possible that it's still re