BOOK

Popculture

One-time Mojo editor Paul Trynka delivered the authoritative biography of Jim Osterberg, aka Iggy Pop, in 2007. Now available in paperback, “Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed,” (Broadway; 372 pages; $14.95) is an awful lot like Iggy himself—compelling, charming, boasting a vibrant intellect and absolutely terrifying.

Tracing Osterberg’s beginnings as a frighteningly bright Detroit kid picked “Most Likely to Succeed” in his high school years—Osterberg ran repeatedly for class offices, and his teachers and classmates had him pegged for a career politician, if not the actual president of the United States, believe it or not—through his transmogrification at the hands of rock ’n’ roll, Trynka explains the man’s doomed genius and the ongoing battle between his intellectual and way-gonzo inclinations.

A must-read for Stooges and Iggy fans.

FOOD

Tea time

Pumpkin lattes looked great in October, and peppermint appealed at Christmas time. But now that the holidays are over and we’ve settled into the dreary part of the winter, you can refresh your tastebuds with a summer delight—fresh-brewed iced tea from Tim Hortons.

It seems like Tim’s used to stop icing their brewed tea when the temperatures fell. But somehow the company got the message that while hot tea has its place, many people like the thirst-quenching effect of iced tea year-round.

Sometimes it’s still warm when they hand you the big plastic cup. In those cases, an extra cup of ice on the side allows you to take a slurp and refill with cubes, maintaining the critical coolness.

It’s tea-riffic!

BOOK

Word play

From pink slips to red tape, from asking “Where’s the beef?” to looking a gift horse in the mouth, American English has thousands of interesting colloquialisms. Benchmarks are still vital today, but who remembers that they were once small metal markers placed in the ground by surveyors?

Ralph Keyes does. The author of three books about writing, Keyes takes on the slang of the past century and beyond in his fascinating if overnamed book, “I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech.”

“Today’s 18-year-old may not know who Mrs. Robinson is, the size of a breadbox or why ‘going postal’ refers to a major uproar,” says the back-cover blurb. Fair enough. But the book is anything but archaic. There’s plenty of relatively recent pop culture—from “You talkin’ to me?” to “I’ll have what she’s having.”