F. Scott Fitzgerald's "There are no second acts in American lives." Celebrity journalists often open with it to disprove it, pointing to some politician or actor who had a whole second wave. #ThatWordChat

Later she wrote a book titled Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. In the introduction, she reflects on how the line took on a new meaning, and ultimately celebrates it. #ThatWordChat

Ulrich meant that well-behaved women seldom make history, but they should. Historians need to pay attention to the lives of ordinary women, not only "the Napoleons and great men of history." #ThatWordChat

It comes from an unlikely place: a "dry as dust academic article" about the lives of Puritans in early America, by the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. #ThatWordChat

One commonly misunderstood line: "Well-behaved women seldom make history." It was an emblem of the women's liberation movement through the '70s, '80s, and '90s. #ThatWordChat

Are there non-verse examples that have gone astray? Burnstein says the philosophical, scholarly, and historical quotes lead to more unambiguous conclusions. #ThatWordChat

On "wherefore art thou Romeo”: Via Tom Burnham's 1970s book The Dictionary of Misinformation: there's no comma in the line. If wherefore meant where, it'd be "Where are you, Romeo?" Instead: "Why are you Romeo?" The missing comma is "the icing on the cake." #ThatWordChat

Is it okay that we rewrite a line's meaning a little to fit our own circumstances? Burnstein says once a quote "becomes kind of common currency," it's inevitable it gets applied in new ways. #ThatWordChat

Poetic entries are especially tricky, Burnstein says, because "you want to be particularly delicate." A Paris Review essay, remembered as something like "the most misread poem in America," kicked off the research on this one. #ThatWordChat

Burnstein calls it "a kind of devious qualifier." The poem is really about how we make meaning after the fact out of seemingly random choices, and shape our lives into a story from them. #ThatWordChat

The key is the line right before the famous one: "I shall be telling this with a sigh," ages and ages hence, which might mean telling, not having actually done it. #ThatWordChat

But read the earlier verses closely. The rambler at the fork says the two roads equally lay in leaves and had been worn "really about the same." They were more or less interchangeable. #ThatWordChat

We asked about one that comes up a lot: "a rose is a rose is a rose." Since it comes from a poem, "we have to be careful not to squeeze it too tight. It means lots of things." #ThatWordChat

At "the deeper end of the philosophical pond": "I think therefore I am" and "the medium is the message." The goal is to unpack them "as briefly as possible without losing nuance." #ThatWordChat

Burnstein aims for "a little something for everyone, or at least for lovers of literature and philosophy and history." Some entries are light, like "Don't Mess with Texas." "Wherefore art thou" is in there too, as one of the shorter ones. #ThatWordChat

Phrased & Confused looks at famous quotations that are commonly misunderstood or enigmatic. "It is in that latter category that some of the philosophy kind of makes its way back in." #ThatWordChat

The first book, Dictionary of Fine Distinctions: Nuances, Niceties, and Subtle Shades of Meaning, looks at similar objects, ideas, and words and briefly disambiguates them, with illustrations. #ThatWordChat

"I got to kind of use the humor writing as a kind of Trojan horse to sneak in my true passion, which is philosophy of language, for lack of a better term." -Burnstein #ThatWordChat

After entering the work world, Burnstein started "noodling around with humor writing," submitting lots to The New Yorker and McSweeney's. After many rejections came a breakthrough and more regular contributions. #ThatWordChat

Burnstein studied philosophy in university and "even began and subsequently abandoned a PhD in philosophy…As much as I loved teaching, I think I wanted to write for a broader audience." #ThatWordChat