tradition

Afternoon tea is served in teacups with milk and sugar. It is accompanied by sandwiches, traditionally cucumber and ham; scones, with butter and jam; and cakes such as Battenberg. The ideal background music is "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty.

Robert Crawford, who wrote The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography, says that Scotland's national poet shares with the best hip-hop artists a genius for rhymes that are completely "liberated from the hegemony of standard English".

Ever been in a graveyard and couldn't find the grave you were looking for? That won't happen in Fernwood Cemetery in California, because each grave can be located with Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates. All you need is a smartphone.

The word "Christmas" means "Christ's Mass". It comes from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse. "Cristes" is from the Greek Christos, and "mæsse" is from the Latin missa. "Xmas" is often used as an abbreviation for Christmas.