Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Someone should write a love letter to a new book called Letters of Note. It's a splendid collection of all kinds of correspondence through the ages: Elvis Presley fans writing to the president, children making suggestions to famous cartoonists, a scientist's poignant love letter to his late wife. Then there's correspondence in the digital age: Grant and Martha talk about how to emphasize something in an email, and when it helps to use emoticons. Also, the fabric called blue jean is much, much older than you might think. Plus, Lord love a duck,man in the moon, bacon and eggs vs. eggs and bacon, white-liver widows, and a vinegar-and-ketchup sauce called julep.
This episode first aired June 27, 2014.

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 Letters of Note
Letters of Note, a book based on the website of the same name, is a collection of funny, moving, and insightful letters from both famous people and nobodies.

 Bacon and Eggs vs. Eggs and Bacon
Which comes first in this favorite breakfast combo: bacon and eggs, or eggs and bacon? Neither are totally idiomatic, but bacon and eggs is most common.

 Emphasizing Words
Emphasizing one word over another, especially in written correspondence, makes a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. And if all caps or italics don't do the trick in an email, consider using an emoticon.

 Lazyshop
Since Adobe released the photo-editing program Photoshop in 1988, to photoshop has become a common verb, which got shortened to just shop. Now people are using the hashtag lazyshop, where you just describe the changes you would have made to a photo if you'd actually had the energy to photoshop it.

 New Famous Surnames Quiz
Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a name game for famous folks who could use a different surname because of their trade.

 White-Livered
The term white-livered, like lily-livered, can describe someone timid. But an old folk tradition, once common in the South, associates having a white liver or white spots on one's liver with an insatiable sexual appetite. The terms white-livered widow, or white- livered widder refers to a woman who has a series of husbands who died shortly after they married, presumably because she simply wore them out physically.

 Origin of “Denim”
The fabric called denim originated in the town of Nimes, France, hence the name. The fabric known as jean, originally from Genoa, Italy, was popular long before Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis and teamed up in 1873 to make durable work trousers using jean and duck cloth.

 Saving Elvis's Sideburns
In 1958, when Elvis Presley joined the Army, some adoring fans sent a letter to President Eisenhower begging him not to let them shave The King's sideburns.

 A Different Julep
The word julep, from Persian terms meaning "rose water," usually refers to a mint-and-bourbon alcoholic beverage with a kick as strong as a Kentucky Derby winner. But one family from North Carolina has a sauce they call julep: a half-empty bottle of ketchup mixed with apple cider vinegar. We've never heard of such a thing — have you?

 Feyman's Letter to His Dead Wife
Two years after his wife died of tuberculosis at the age of 25, physicist Richard Feynman wrote her an extraordinarily touching letter that remained sealed until after his death.

 Man in the Moon
Eudora Welty dropped the phrase man in the moon a couple times in her short story "Why I Live at the P.O." The phrase doesn't really reference the moon itself; it simply adds emphasis. Incidentally, seeing the image of a face or human figure in the moon is an example of pareidolia.

 A Letter to Charles Schulz
Some of the best things in the book Letters of Note are letters from kids to adults. One young fan's plea to Charles Schultz that he remove a character from Peanuts was actually met with approval.

 Bored for the Hollow Horn
When someone says they should be bored for the hollow horn, it's typically a lighthearted way of saying they should have their own head examined. The saying comes from an old supposed disease of cattle that made them dull and lethargic, and diagnosed by boring a hole in one of their horns.

 A Child Named Bodie
In an earlier episode, we talked about regretting what you name your child, and we got a call from a mother who named her son Bodie and found that the name didn't travel so well. In France, people thought his name was "Body."

 “Lord Love a Duck” Origin
The history of the exclamation Lord love a duck!is unclear, but it may be a euphemism for a rhyming curse word or for the mild oath For the love of Christ!

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

Photo by Clarke Beattie. Used under a Creative Commons license.

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