Today's New York Times: Does Language Shape Thought?

When I was growing up in the Boston area, "Braintree" was the last stop on the Red Line. When a friend came from England to visit, she asked why anyone would name a town after such a horrible image. I was 24 and it had never occurred to me to break apart Braintree into brain tree. When I learned that the word for skyscraper in Spanish translates to "sky scratcher" I thought it such a poetical language - again - never thinking that our buildings were scraping the edge of the summer sky. Perhap...