You walk into a used bookstore, or pull down an old volume at the library, and there it is: The smell of old books. If you detect notes of vanilla in that intoxicating scent, there's a reason. Also, why some people think the word awesome is overused, why Comic Sans is a font almost universally reviled, and the origin of the phrase "around Robin Hood's barn." Plus, chuck it vs. chunk it, sharing out, the dummy it, intellectual jokes, and the answers some parents give when a kid asks one too many questions. As in, "Daddy, what's that?" "Why, it's a wiggly-woggler for grinding smoke!"
This episode first aired September 28, 2013.
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Why Old Books Smell Good
Nothing like that old-book smell. And if you open up an old volume and think you detect notes of vanilla, there's a good reason. That intoxicating scent is the result of lignin, a chemical compound in plants used for making paper. It has a molecular structure similar to that of vanilla.
Silly Phrases to Deflect Questions
"Grandpa, what's that?" A caller says that when she asked her grandfather one too many questions, he'd give her the fanciful answer, "That's a dingbat off of a wiffem dilly that you grind smoke with." It's one of several things parents say to deflect questions from inquisitive children. Similar phrases include a wigwam for a water-windmill for grinding smoke, a weegee for grinding smoke, and a wiggly-woggler for grinding smoke.
Words that Don't Fit their Definitions
Is there a word for a word that doesn't fit its own definition? For example, verb is a noun, and monosyllabic is polysyllabic. Come to think of it, why is it so hard to remember how to spell mnemonic?
Chuck It vs. Chunk It
A truck driver in Tucson, Arizona, has a dispute with her boyfriend: If you toss something out, do you chuck it or chunk it?
Intellectual Jokes
"Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?" That's one answer to the question: "What's the most intellectual joke you know?"
Pun Clues Puzzle
Quiz Guy John Chaneski offers a quiz with punning clues from some of the nation's top crossword-puzzle constructors.
Business and Educational Jargon
Do the verb phrases share out and explain out have a special, nuanced meaning in the worlds of business and education? Or are they jargon to be avoided?
Semantic Weakening of Awesome
A Vermont caller feels the word awesome is overused to the point of being almost meaningless. There's a term for that. It's called semantic weakening.
Confesso
Listener Jennifer Bragg writes: "In our home, we call an extra-strong coffee confesso. One cup and you can't stop talking."
Lanai vs. Breezeway
A caller originally from South Florida grew up calling the screened-in patio area behind her house a lanai, but now that she lives in Indianapolis, she hears this structure called breezeway. The word lanai originated in Hawaii, and may have been popularized in Florida by real estate developers.
In the Offing
The origin of the phrase in the offing is nautical. The offing is the part of the ocean that one can see from shore, so if something's in the offing, it's not that far away.
Comic Sans
Why does everyone hate the Comic Sans? Well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people dislike it. In fact, graphic designer David Cadavy gave a whole Ignite Chicago talk on the topic.
Creasies
In parts of the American South, a can of creasies is a can of watercress salad, also known as salad greens.
Placeholder "It"
A Quebec listener asks: In the phrases it's a girl, or it's raining, what exactly is the it here? It's called the weather it or the dummy it, and it serves a placeholder inserted to make the sentence function grammatically.
Polyglot Faulty Language Selection
Polyglots sometimes experience faulty language selection, accidentally reaching for words from a language different from the one they're speaking. Listener Phoebe Liu of Seattle grew up speaking Chinese, then learned English, and studied Japanese in college. She says that physically embodying stereotypical speakers of each language when speaking helps her keep the languages straight.
Around Robin's Barn
If you say they went "all the way around Robin's barn," it means they took a long, circuitous route. A San Antonio, Texas, listener wants to know: Who is Robin and why did he build his barn in such an inconvenient place? It's probably a reference to Robin Hood, the legendary character who kept the riches he stole in Sherwood Forest — a very big "barn" indeed.
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Photo by Tom Maisey. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Music Used in the Broadcast
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mas o Menos | Budos Band | The Budos Band | Daptone |
| Fresh Kitfo | Ethio-Cali Ensemble | Fresh Kitfo | Paris DJ's Soundsystem |
| Nickels and Dimes | Jay Z | Magna Carta… Holy Grail | Roc-A-Fella Records |
| The Cylinder | Milt Jackson | The Ballad Artistry of Milt Jackson | Atlantic |
| Hidden Hand | Budos Band | The Budos Band | Daptone |
| The Proposition | Budos Band | The Budos Band | Daptone |
| Ephra | Budos Band | The Budos Band | Daptone |
| Makin' Whopee | Milt Jackson | The Ballad Artistry of Milt Jackson | Atlantic |
| Raja Haje | Budos Band | The Budos Band | Daptone |
| Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off | Ella Fitzgerald | Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George and Ira Gershwin Song Book | Verve |
On semantic weakening: How much simpler it would have been for the USA and its allies invading Iraq looking for WMD if "Weapon of mass destruction" meant the same then as it does now. The suspect in the Boston bombings has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, which in that case was a conventional bomb, and Iraq must have possessed some of them.
On Comic Sans: Why is "Sans" pronounced like a plural of "San" instead of the way I pronounce it as a French word? It is a sans serif font (without serifs), so it must be the French word.
I pronounce the full phrase sans serif just as you describe Comic Sans -- as American as San Francisco and Sandwiches.
The article is good reading but the thesis on hate comic sans is incredibly vague and incredible. The author traces its genesis to Microsoft dot matrix texts, and seems to imply the one was all the fonts available to the early self publishers, who in turn gave comic sans a bad name with their poor quality productions. But what must have happened in history was nearly instantly before anyone noticed anything all the fonts as of today came on line all at once so that there was no special prejudice about any font over another whatsoever, so any hate must be personal tastes alone.
Christopher Murray said
On Comic Sans: Why is "Sans" pronounced like a plural of "San" instead of the way I pronounce it as a French word? It is a sans serif font (without serifs), so it must be the French word.
Sans  has been used in English for more than 600 years, and lost the French pronunciation long, long ago.
Peter