See the cute little boy making the kissy face on the page for our latest episode? That’s Grant’s son, whom you’ve heard him mention on the show. Guthrie’s now about twice as old as he was then and he’ll be heading to kindergarten this autumn. San...
New York seems to have a doguero on every street corner. Grant shares this Spanglish term for “a hot dog vendor.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Doguero” Here in San Diego, we often find that Spanish and English are mixing in...
Rabbit, Rabbit! In our latest archive edition, we dispense writing advice, discuss funny Spanish idioms, survey the wide array of names for grandparents, and talk about “fixin’ to,” “I’m all set,” and the ditty “Toidy poiple boidies, sittin’ on a...
What does it mean to have an albatross around your neck? A political pundit, referring to a current candidate, mentioned “an alcatraz around his neck.” The proper version, with an albatross, originates from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the...
You know those words whose meanings never seem to stick in your mind, no matter how many times you flip back to the dictionary? Martha wrestles with the term atavistic, meaning “the tendency to revert to ancestral characteristics.” She now remembers...
Skyscraper makes literal sense once you picture a head scraping the sky, the image Alice in Carlsbad, California saw when comparing herself with her cat. Before it meant a tall building, skyscraper referred to the topmost sail on a sailing ship...