Straight and Narrow (episode #1659)

English spelling is a hot mess, even for native speakers. But as a new book shows, would-be spelling reformers, including Benjamin Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, eventually just gave up. Also, what do you call your fellow parent in front of the children? Do you use the same word when the kids aren't around? And: baseball announcers may refer to a fastball as high cheese, but the reason has nothing to do with dairy products. Plus, "Mairzy Doats," straight and narrow vs. straightened arrow, a puzzle about sound switcheroos, cuando la rana crie pelos, a cute kid coinage, geehaw, quid, teknonomy, books with great opening lines, and lots more.

This episode first aired June 14, 2025.

Books with Great Opening Lines

 A couple of books with great opening lines: Jaws (Bookshop|Amazon) by Peter Benchley and The Knife of Never Letting Go (Bookshop|Amazon) by Patrick Ness.

Do Sandal Straps Become Handles?

 Suppose you take off your sandals and then carry them while holding the straps in your hand. In that case, is it correct to call those straps handles? Phil in Omaha, Nebraska, has a longstanding dispute with a friend over that question. You might say you're utilizing the straps as handles because the straps are meant to keep the shoes on your feet, but you're using them to perform a different function. It's not a question of semantics, but intention.

Quid, Cash or Tobacco

 How did quid come to be British slang for that unit of currency called a pound? It's tempting to assume this quid is from Latin quid pro quo, meaning "something for something." However, a more likely explanation may be that it's from an entirely different quid, an English term that means "a wad of tobacco." After all, such a wad might resemble a handful of paper money. That quid derives from Old English and may be a linguistic relative of cud. But the truth is nobody is sure how quid to came to refer to a unit of money.

Brain Teaser Sound Swap

 In this week's brain teaser from Quiz Guy John Chaneski, each clue involves switching the first and last sounds of a word to form a new word. In the case of the word look, for example, swapping those initial and final sounds leaves you with the word cool. So what two words are suggested by the clue I enjoy the sensation of a page in my hand?

Referring to One's Spouse as Mom or Dad

 Ashley in Tallahassee, Florida, says some friends find it odd that she refers to her husband as Dad even when their daughter isn't around. Is it weird to address your spouse that way? In some cultures, parents are addressed differently after their child is born, a practice known as teknonomy.

Winding, Rhyming with Wending not Minding

 A Charlotte, North Carolina, shares her granddaughter's adorable misunderstanding of a word. When a breeze was blowing, the little girl would say it's winding (rhyming more or less with "wending" rather than "minding").

Straight and Narrow, Not Straightened Arrow

 Which is correct to describe "a morally upright path" — straight and narrow or straightened arrow? The latter is picturesque, but the vastly more common term is straight and narrow. The original expression was strait and narrow, a reference to a verse in early translations of the Sermon on the Mount rendered as Enter ye in at the strait gate. Here, the word strait is a synonym for "narrow" and refers to the path of righteousness, which allows for little deviation. The same strait meaning "narrow" is also a part of the tight, confining garment known as a straitjacket, as well as strait meaning "a narrow passage," and dire straits, initially "difficult or narrow passages of water" and later more generally "an extremely challenging situation."

When People Geehaw, or Don't

 Why do people say They don't geehaw to mean "They don't get along"? Geehaw, occasionally spelled jeehaw, comes from the calls people use to drive a team of animals, such as oxen, mules, horses, or sled dogs, gee being an order to turn right and haw ordering the animals to go left.

English Spelling is Tuff to Change

 English spelling is messy to say the least, and a delightful new book by Gabe Henry recounts the long history of attempts to simplify English spelling. It's called Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell (Bookshop|Amazon), and details efforts by Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, and Teddy Roosevelt to improve on how English words are spelled.

In Mud Eels Are

 A listener shares her grandfather's funny saying. It's a series of logical statements, but when pronounced very quickly it can sound like some sort of Latin incantation: In mud eels are / In clay none are / In pine tar is / In oak none is. In The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Bookshop|Amazon), folklorists Iona and Peter Opie show that there are lots of versions of this saying — including one in a medical manuscript from 500 years ago! Two other lines that sometimes accompany this saying are Goat eat ivy / Mare eat oats, the inspiration for the 1940s novelty song "Mairzy Doats."

The First National Spelling Bee

 In Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell (Bookshop|Amazon), Gabe Henry recounts the story of the first national spelling bee in 1908, which some contestants had threatened to boycott because one of the contestants from Ohio, young Marie Bolden, was black. Marie ended up winning the whole thing.

Baseball Cheese

 Why do baseball announcers say that a pitcher who throws a high fast ball is bringing high cheese? The cheese might be related to big cheese, a term that in turn may go back to Hindi and related languages where chiz means "thing."

When the Frog Grows Hair

 We've previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la rana crie pelos, or "when the frog grows hair."

This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.

Books Mentioned in the Episode

Music Used in the Episode