Don't Be An Idiom: Dressed to the Nines

There are several theories surrounding the origins of this phrase. One of the more popular explanations is that a bolt of fabric is made up of nine yards, and that the whole bolt is used to make a fine suit. This would also appear to explain the origins of the phrase "the whole nine yards," but unfortunately it explains neither. A bolt of fabric is comprised of from between 40 and 100 yards, depending on the material.

Hyundai Working on Using Smartphones to Replace Key Fobs

Put away your car keys for good. In the future, when it comes to entering and starting your car, there will be an app for that.Hyundai is working on a system that uses near-field communication (NFC) to allow drivers to swipe their phones over an embedded chip to unlock the car door. After that, drivers can place their phone over an inductive charging plate mounted in the center console (which will keep the battery charged) and the car will recognize the phone, allowing the user to start the car's engine.Description: Smartphones could replace key fobs soon. Then again, we're still waiting for our phone to replace our wallet.

Yoko Speaks, Ray Collins Dies, Funny Tweets, and more

Yoko Ono has caused a stir online with her recent claim that it was actually Paul McCartney, and not her, who was responsible for the breakup of The Beatles. This upsets the conventional wisdom that John & Yoko's relationship was the straw that broke the Beatle's back, but actually Yoko's recent claim is probably more accurate. In fact, even Sir Paul himself has said Yoko had no role in the breakup of the band who, McCartney said, "was already breaking up."

New Years' Apps

The New Year is almost upon us, and with it comes a brand new bunch of themed apps perfect for the holiday. Thankfully, we've weeded through the countless "Countdown" apps to bring you a few of the very best ones you can check out (if you have a smartphone, that is).

Five Best Cars We Drove in 2012

It's that time again--time for year-end "best of" lists that will be forgotten as soon as the New Year's Day hangover dissipates. Since we're not immune to these kinds of things (lists, not hangovers), here is our list of the five best cars we drove in 2012.

New Years Eve Hors d'Oeurves

If you're hosting a New Year's Eve party this year or are in charge of bringing appetizers to one, you might be stumped on what to serve. You'll want to serve things that are both delicious and impressive, since New Year's Eve is the time of year when people's expectations for a party are heightened the most. Save serving something boring for any other party—now is a time to wow your guests.Here are several of our favorite hors d'oeurves for a party.

Infiniti Switches Naming Strategy

Earlier this week, Infiniti (Nissan's luxury brand) announced that it was going to change its model-naming strategy, changing from the current strategy of naming each car with a designated letterfor each type of car and a number reflecting engine size (for example, the mid-size sedan is dubbed G37, with the G denoting the type and the 37 representing a 3.7-liter engine) to a strategy in which all cars will be dubbed Q and all crossovers/SUVs will be called QX, with numbers representing each car's price point/place in the model hierarchy. The new strategy will go into effect in 2014.

Gilda Radner Remembered

In late November a newspaper reporter phoned Gene Wilder to tell him that a Wisconsin chapter of Gilda’s Club—the renowned cancer support center named for his late wife, comedienne and original Saturday Night Live cast-member Gilda Radner who lost her battle to ovarian cancer at 42–is changing its name to accommodate younger patients unfamiliar with the organization’s namesake.

Post-Holiday Sales: Are They Worth the Rush?

The day after Christmas is a special day for many people. While some people wait patiently for Black Friday to get the best deals, others wait until later in the season and hit the sales the day after Christmas, stocking up perhaps not on presents but on things they will need for the next year's holiday. Whether or not you should bother with post-Christmas sales depends on your tolerance for crowds as well as how much you'd like to score a deal—remember, post-Christmas markdowns are generally not as much as post-Thanksgiving ones.

Lexus Builds New Sleigh for Santa Claus

If Santa ever needs a new sleigh—one with four wheels and no place for presents—Lexus has one ready just for him. Toyota's luxury brand put out a press release this week touting the ability of its "Lexus Flying Luxury Cruiser" to replace Santa's sleigh and reindeer. This is obviously a play on the name of its LF-LC concept car that was introduced at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

That Holiday Feelin

For so many, the winter holidays are a headache. A depressing, insanely busy balancing act, where we realize how we either, A) hate our families, B) are cripplingly lonely, and/or C) are completely broke and potentially homeless, come January first, when our rent is due. The holidays make you bitter, tense, disheartened and fat (another Christmas cookie to ease the pain?).

Yoga For All

Do youpractice yoga?Do you get “encouraged” (a.k.a passive-aggressively pressured) to practice yoga? Maybe you’ve never taken a yoga class in your life. Still, you probably know that yoga has many connotations these days, now that it has grown immensely popular amongst all kinds of people.You know them: the wealthy, stay-at-home mothers who wear Lulu Lemon all day, the holistic healers, the hippies, the hipsters, the injured athletes. Practicing yoga could mean you’re enlightened, you’re fit (or flexible) as hell, you’re rich, that you have a bad back, or that you just enjoy it.

Electric Car Residuals Lagging

Electric cars are beginning to trickle into the mainstream, and one factor that potential electric-car buyers will need to think about is residual value. Potential buyers might be focused more on factors like range, price, and tax incentives, but residual value will become important when it's time to sell.

Are Extended Warranties Worth It?

Christmas is just around the corner, which means you or someone you know might be getting a new gadget to play with. When you purchase a new tech toy, you're often given the option from the salesperson to tack on extra warranty time—for a fee, of course. Is the additional cost worth it?

From You Tube to Fame

Everyone knows that YouTube is the place to be if you're looking for your 15 minutes of web fame, but some people actually managed to find fame in the real world after first becoming famous on the internet. But before you go thinking that YouTube is your ticket to fame, keep in mind that there are over 200,000 videos uploaded to the video site each day, and only a handful of people have gained wider recognition as a result of their online hits.

Dish.fm Helps Pick the Best Thing on the Menu

We've all had that moment of indecision when we're at a new restaurant. A couple of things on the menu look good, but we can't pick which one we want. Enter Dish.fm, an iPhone app that says it will help you choose the "better" dish.When we downloaded the app, we had relatively high hopes.

Don't Be An Idiom: Meet a Deadline

While the word "deadline" may have been used to describe lines that did not move, such as one used in angling, most etymologists seem to agree that the current usage of the word dates back to the American Civil War. At that time, a deadline was a line that was marked around the perimeter of a military prison. Soldiers guarding the prison were authorized to shoot anyone who crossed this line. However, a later usage may be responsible for our current use of the word deadline to meana set time by which a job needs to be completed. In the early 19th century, the word was used to describe a line on printing presses, beyond which text would not print properly.

GM to Buy Stock Back From Treasury

General Motors took a big step in its efforts to recover from near collapse this week. The automaker, which underwent a federally managed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, will be buying back 200 million shares of common stock currently held by the U.S. Treasury for the cost of $5.5 billion, or $27.50 per share.

Apps of the Week: The Walking Dead, Elf Yourself.

If you have a phone, you might be wondering what kind of apps there are out there to download. Thankfully, for all of you phone-owners, we've compiled a roundup of this week's most popular apps, as well as a couple of our favorites. If you think you've got enough apps, you're wrong. Read on!

Mila Maligned, Facebook Charging, The World Didn't End

As predicted here, as elsewhere, the 2012 Apocalypse turned out to be much ado about nothing. NASA posted this video explaining why the promised end of the world failed to materialize. But of course, NASA is run by the U.S. Government, so for all we know, they're just covering up for the fact that the world actually did end, and we are now living in a Matrix-like computer simulation.