Is typing two spaces after a period "totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong?" Also, is the language of the movie True Grit historically accurate? Also, shut your pie-hole, Southern grammar, oh my Lady Gaga, and a little town called "Podunk."
This episode first aired February 13, 2011.
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How Many Spaces?
How many spaces go after a period? Your schoolteacher may have taught you to use two, but others strongly disagree.
Piehole
Shut your piehole! means "Shut your mouth!" Need more slang terms for the mouth? For starters, there's potato trap, tater trap, tatty trap, bun trap, gingerbread trap, kissing trap, fly trap, rattle trap, baconhole, and cakehole.
Podunk, America
Where is Podunk? Grant explains that a columnist in the 1800s used the name for his series called "Life in the Small Town of Podunk," referring to a generic backwoods American town.
Hard-Boiled Egg in Ceviche
A listener shares a phrase he learned in Peru that translates as "more lost than a hard-boiled egg in ceviche." It describes someone who's lost or clueless.
Cryptic Crosswords Word Game
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a word game worthy of the Saturday puzzle called "Cryptic Crosswords."
Formal Movie Language
Is the excessively formal language in "True Grit" (2010) historically accurate? The hosts discuss why the Coen brothers would do away with contractions to set a tone for the movie.
Regardless vs. Irregardless
A transplant from Zimbabwe finds the word irregardless annoying and ungrammatical. Grant explains that regardless of its status, "irregardless" is needlessly redundant.
Oh, My Goodness!
The phrase "Oh, my goodness!" may be a dated way to express surprise or disbelief. A listener asks for a contemporary replacement.
Multiple Modals
Multiple modals, as in the phrase "I thought y'all may would have some more of them," have their own logic and are well understood by many in the American South. The Database of Multiple Modals compiled by Paul Reed and Michael Montgomery is here.
You're a Card
If you call someone a card, it means they're funny or quick-witted. Grant and Martha discuss the metaphors inspired by the language of playing cards.
What Would You Serve Game
What do you serve to a lawyer coming to dinner? A listener shares her riddle for the "What Would You Serve" game?
Trip the Light Fantastic
Have you been asked to trip the light fantastic? This phrase, meaning "dance the night away," dates back to a poem by John Milton from 1640.
Niveaulimbo
Martha shares the German slang term niveaulimbo, meaning "a limbo of standards."
Lb. Abbreviation
Why is the word pound abbreviated lb.? A listener from Tijuana, Mexico, learns that the answer relates to his native Spanish as well as the Latin term for "weighing."
Neruda Love Sonnet
Martha reads a love sonnet by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Here's the text of the original Spanish, with an English translation by Mark Eisner. And here's a lovely audio rendering of the poem in Spanish.
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Photo by veganLazySmurf. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Music Used in the Broadcast
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transatlantic | Quantic | Apricot Morning | Tru Thoughts |
| The 5th Exotic | Quantic | The 5th Exotic | Tru Thoughts |
| Live Right Now | Eddie Harris | Plug Me In | Atlantic |
| Mishaps Happening | Quantic | Mishaps Happening | Ubiquity Records |
| It's Crazy | Eddie Harris | Plug Me In | Atlantic |
| Powerhouse | Chester Thompson | Powerhouse | Black Jazz |
| Whiter Shade Of Pale | Procol Harum | Procol Harum | SALVO |
| More Bounce To The Ounce | Zapp & Roger | More Bounce To The Ounce And Other Hits | Flashback |
| Let's Call The Whole Thing Off | Fred Astarie | Fred Astaire's Finest Hour | Verve |
I confess. I am a two space typist. In my defense, though, I did learn to type on a manual typewriter. That was the standard procedure. I've tried using only one space between sentences, but with 30 years of experience the other way, it just doesn't work for me. A double space is automatic.
Me, too, Jackie. And now you're bringing back memories of my big, old, shuddering IBM Selectric. I thought the pop-out ribbon cartridge for corrections was SO state-of-the-art. Not these days, though!
And I thought that little roll of correcting tape you could insert between the paper and type bar was a huge advance over messy correcting fluid (which I swear gave me a buzz when used excessively in a poorly ventilated room).
Talk about memories, Martha ... I got onboard the "computer revolution" early. Maybe 84 or 85. Some business donated an IBM AT to our school when they upgraded to the XT. Nobody at the school really knew really knew (or wanted to learn) how to use it. I taught science and figured I should. So the principal let me take it home to play around with. Figured out the basics in a couple weeks.
Then came my great moment of discovery. At a local office supply store they had a rack of 5.5" floppy discs (remember those?) and I found one with an early word processing program called New York Edit. It went way beyond the mono-spaced Courier text you were forced to use in *.txt files, providing rudimentary formatting capabilities and a few extra fonts. As I started using it for writing tests and reports, and got used to the almost magical process of cutting and pasting, typing over errors to correct them, and inserting bold, italic, and underlined text, I realized this software was going to change the way I write. And it did.
I sold my electric typewriter while it still had some value on the used market and never looked back. Who could imagine living with anything but a word processor these days? And how many kids these days have even seen a typewriter?
How many kids have seen a typewriter, Heimhenge? I'd guess, not many. My daughter is in high school and is a fabulous touch-typist. All the letters are worn off her keyboard but it makes no difference to her. I asked her about the double space thing. No, in elementary school keyboarding, they were taught just a single space after the period. She did say some of her middle school teachers requested students to use the double space when writing papers. Some even went so far as to take off points if papers had only the single space! Now she's determined to dig up a typewriter, so she can try her typing skills out on that.