I love this top from The Secret Store for this month’s Collabor88 so much. She produced several optiongs, but only one polka dot. Its bright, happy print made me go full polka and I dug out this skirt from Maitreya to wear with it.

Have you ever wondered why a print with dots all over it is called polka dot instead of simply dotted print? Do the textile workers dance while producing the cloth? Allemande left and a dosey doe? I am the type of person who wonders these things, wanting not just to know what something is called, but why? The best source for answers to these kinds of questions is the Oxford English Dictionary to which an individual like me could subscribe for $295/year. On my budget, that is not going to happen.

Enter the public library card. Public libraries in general have gone digital in a big way and allow cardholders to log in and access their digital subscriptions. My library subscribes to the OED (though for a lot more than $295) and all its cardholders can piggy-back their access to use it as freely as if they have their own subscription. They do this with literally hundreds of research and reference sources — just about every major research service you can think of. All for free, all available from your home computer thanks to the wonders of your library card. So let’s find out why it’s called polka dot instead of dotted.

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