mouth fighting n.— «Trash talkers have been part of the sport since its earliest days, from John L. Sullivan’s drunken hollering to Mike Tyson’s threats to eat Lennox Lewis” children. Actually, Tyson went beyond trash—what emerged...
butterfly lighting n.— «I usually place my beauty dish as close to the model as I can. Why? Because the closer the light is to your subject, the softer the light. My dish is placed high above the face, angled down on it at about a 45...
When it comes to text messaging and its effect on English, the linguistic apocalypse is not nigh. Quite the contrary, in fact. Grant talks about some eye-opening research about text-messaging and teen literacy. This is part of a complete episode.
What do you call a word made from a blend of two other words, like motel from motor and hotel? A listener says his term for them is “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup words,” after the old commercial: “You got chocolate in my peanut...
Let’s say that you’re getting diesel therapy at o-dark-thirty. What are you getting and when are you getting it? A New Jersey contestant from the National Puzzlers’ League learns the meaning of these terms in this week’s...
A caller wonders about a term used by her family when someone gives you a certain look: the hairy eyeball. Grant and Martha try to shed some light on the phrase. This is part of a complete episode.