I Don’t Have the Spoons (episode #1597)

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

A ditloid is a word puzzle that uses numerals and initial letters of words to suggest a phrase.

For example, if I give you the clue 26L in the A, then…

26 letters in the alphabet.

Yep, exactly.

And how about 52W in a Y?

Oh, worms in the lemon.

No, weeks.

Weeks in the year.

I don’t know.

Very good.

Well, here’s one more.

Nine L of a C.

Ooh, nine L of a C.

Mm—

I don’t know what that is.

Nine.

I’ll give you a clue, Grant.

How about, it’s a one-word clue, Bianca.

My cat, Bianca?

Mm—

Mm—

Oh, nine lives of a cat.

Oh, okay. Gotcha. Oh, okay.

They’re harder than you might think.

Right.

Yeah. Well, our friend Will Shorts, the NPR puzzle master, is credited with this particular style of brain teaser.

And originally, he called it an equation analysis test.

What’s super interesting is that in 1999, William Hartston, who was a columnist for the Daily Express in London,

Dubbed this type of puzzle a ditloid.

It’s called a ditloid because it has to do with a clue that was inspired by a novel by the great Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

The clue was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, that novel, which if you’re going to clue that as a ditloid, it’s the numeral one and then D-I-T-L-O-I-D.

Oh, perfect. Yeah, so ditloid, and that must have been very hard, very difficult to solve.

Yeah, I don’t think I ever would have gotten that.

No.

Anyway, I learned about Ditloids in a fantastic new book called The Puzzler,

And I’m really eager to talk about it later in the show.

And Martha and I are both eager to talk with you, our listeners,

About the right way to say and spell and write language,

Whether it’s English or something else.

words@waywordradio.org, 877-929-9673, or Twitter @wayword.

Hi there. You have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Emery. I’m calling you from Jacksonville, Florida, where I listen on WJXT.

Yep. Great station. Glad to have you.

Yeah, I’m calling about phrases and phrases that are used to describe really good food.

When I was growing up, my grandmother always used to say, oh, my gosh, those beans were so good, it’d make your tongue want to slap your brains out.

And as a little kid, this is stuck in my mind.

And I heard it over time that all my aunts and uncles would say the same thing.

And as I got older, I had friends who would say, oh, yeah, did you have her stew?

She really put her foot in that.

And that was also another strange phrase for, you know, it was really good.

So I was just curious.

I mean, those are the only two I’m aware of.

Are there any other ones out there that may be distinct to different cultures or different segments of the population?

These are so different from each other, though.

So say someone put their foot in it, meaning they cooked well, and the other one, what was it?

Make your tongue slap your brains out?

Was that it?

Yep.

Yep.

My grandmother is Bahamian, and a lot of that may have come from the islands.

I’m not sure.

Bahamian, okay.

Yeah, they were part of the comp community that came over from the Bahamas to Florida in the beginning of the 20th century to help build Flagler’s Railroad.

Okay, gotcha.

Well, let me ask you, when you heard that they said someone put their foot in it, meaning they cooked a good meal, did you hear it from Black Americans or African Americans?

I did.

And when I was asking a friend about this the other day, he said, yeah, the lesser version of that is she put her toe in it.

So I guess it’s the degree of how good it is.

You get the toe or you get the whole foot.

Because it is especially common in Black English among Black Americans, well-known in that community.

It’s become a little bit of a catchphrase for some Black chefs in America.

You can find it, like, on aprons sold by them.

And that’s a catchphrase in some of their cookbooks.

And it’s just really well-known.

And it’s not, you know, British listeners are going like, wait a second.

Doesn’t to put your foot in it mean to put your foot in your mouth?

To say something awkward or untoward or to make a gaffe?

Yes, it does.

But that’s English for you.

Sometimes expressions have more than one meaning.

But in the context of cooking and making food, among black Americans, to put your foot in it means to really do it up well, to make a great dish.

Just to put all your oomph into your meal.

If you put your foot in your mouth and that keeps your tongue from slapping your brains out, right?

Yeah.

One of the two, yeah. It’s a full-on block.

There’s a couple theories about why we might put our foot into it.

One is it might have something to do with putting one’s best foot forward,

Which is an old expression in English, at least 500 years old.

Another one is it may be associated with the British expression to give it some welly.

Do you know that? To give something some welly?

No, I’ve not heard that one before.

Welly is short for wellingtons, which is a kind of boot.

So it basically means to give it a kick, to give it some extra effort.

Also, variants are give it some boot or give it some clog.

As far as the tongue slapping your brains out, the food is so good.

There are a lot of variants on that.

Martha, you surely have heard a bunch of those from your folks in the South.

Well, honestly, no.

No?

No.

Although I’m aware of it’s so good it’ll make your tongue jump out and lick the eyebrows right off your head.

Well, the classic is so good makes you want to slap your granny.

You haven’t heard that one?

Oh, yeah.

Or slap your mama.

Slap your mama.

Mm—

Yeah, we have some hot sauce with that name.

Smack my blank and call me Sally.

Yeah, exactly.

Or it tastes so good it’ll make your tapeworm stand up and bark.

Or if it were any better, I’d rub it in my hair.

So good it’ll make your teeth white, your skin tight, and childbirth a pleasure.

The last one is the best.

The last one is the best.

Well, cool.

Thanks for calling.

Take care of yourself and be well, all right?

Thank you.

You guys have a great day.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Emery.

Martha and I do regular appearances on Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street

If you’d like to hear us talk about food and language.

And you can call us with your questions about food and language, 877-929-9673.

I just learned the term wet dress rehearsal.

Do you know this term, Grant?

I mean…

I think I’ve heard this.

Is this a dress rehearsal with makeup?

No.

No? What is it?

No. A wet dress rehearsal is a practice run for every stage of a rocket launch

Without the rocket actually leaving the pad.

This is a term used at NASA where they actually fill the spacecraft’s fuel tanks

And they do a full launch countdown and they demonstrate the ability to reset the countdown clock

And then they drain the tank.

So they do everything but, you know, send the rocket into space.

And it’s called a wet dress rehearsal or a WDR.

Wow, because they have the liquid fuel doing its thing except for firing.

That makes sense.

Yeah, I came across that term and I thought, what?

That seems like a great term to repurpose in so many different areas of life and industry.

We’d love to hear what you have to say about language in your world.

Send us an email, words@waywordradio.org, or tell us on Twitter @wayword.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, my name is Andrew Sexton. I’m calling from Cape Cod.

Hi, Andrew. Welcome to the show.

Well, I have a memory of a phrase that my grandmother used to use.

I heard her use it several times.

My grandmother lived with us, and she was my best friend.

And she kind of took my side and stuff.

Like, if my mother was admonishing me about, you know, getting dirty in the backyard, playing in the mud or whatever, she would say, you’ve got to eat a peck of dirt before you die.

My grandmother would say that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that phrase stuck in my head.

And I’ve always wondered, and as I’ve grown much older, that it’s taken on additional meaning.

So I was just wondering if you had an inkling about where that phrase came from.

It’s a way of being philosophical about your trials and tribulations.

Your grandmother was right.

You know, everybody’s going to suffer setbacks and disappointments.

I mean, that’s just part of the deal, right?

If you’re alive, that’s part of the bargain.

Do you know what a peck is?

It’s half a bushel.

I believe it’s a quarter bushel.

Right.

Oh, really?

Yeah, eight U.S. Quarts, a little under nine liters.

Yeah.

I thought it was a half, but okay.

You know, if you’re talking about eating a peck of dirt, a quarter of a bushel or a half a bushel.

That’s a lot of dirt.

That’s a lot of dirt.

Yeah, I think that she was probably familiar with this as a metaphorical phrase that also works if you’re talking about a little kid out in the backyard.

But in any case, yeah, the word peck is often used as kind of an approximate measure in English.

You know, he’s in a peck of trouble or I don’t know if you used this phrase,

But I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

Oh, sure. That’s an old song.

Oh, is it a song? I didn’t know that.

Oh, yeah.

I love you a bushel and a peck, bushland a peck, and a heck around the neck.

Yeah.

Lovely.

Plus the double meaning of peck, right?

Oh, I never even thought about that.

Oh, okay.

Well, you’re teaching me stuff, Andrew.

I’m a musician and a songwriter,

So I’ve got a vast history of miscellaneous music in my head.

Oh, okay.

Well, maybe you can put this one to music.

Sometimes people say you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die,

But nobody wants to eat it all at once.

That’s a good point.

And another variant is, if you have to eat dirt, eat clean dirt.

But Martha, it’s old, right?

We’re talking 400 years, although it was a peck of ashes, I think, in the beginning.

Yeah, it’s really, really old.

And, you know, there’s another phrase that I have to bring up, which may be related.

In antiquity, there was the phrase to eat a peck of salt, or at least that’s how it’s translated into English.

In his Ethics, Aristotle writes about friendships and about how friendships require time and intimacy.

And one place he says, as the saying goes, you cannot get to know a man until you have consumed the proverbial amount of salt in his company.

Of course, that’s in translation from the ancient Greek, but the Greek word here that’s translated as pek is medimos, which is a unit of measure for things like corn.

So you have this idea for a couple of thousand years now that you eat something that you don’t ordinarily eat that amount of for something else to happen.

Oh, I thought that was about the passage of time, though.

The salt represented the little bit of salt that you sprinkle on each meal that you eat with a friend.

Yeah, yeah, that’s what it is.

Oh, I see.

Over time.

It’s a cumulative effect.

Yeah, not all at once.

Yeah, you can’t.

Yeah, sorry if I didn’t get that clear.

Your kidneys will thank you for not eating that all at once.

Well, there you go, Andrew.

It’s an oldie, but a little bit of background for you.

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

All right, take care now.

Bon appétit.

Bye-bye.

We would love to hear about these expressions that just catch your ear and delight you.

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.

And hey, talk to us on Twitter @wayword.

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And joining us now is our very Wayword quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hi, Martha.

Hi, Grant.

I’ve come back from being Wayword to come deliver this quiz to you.

I’m going to earn your oohs and ahs the easiest way possible.

I’ll give you a clue to two words.

One word begins with the sound ooh, and the other word begins with the sound

Okay?

Okay.

Okay.

For example, I was making a traditional Chinese tea, and somehow I messed it up.

The ooh tasted

The answer would be…

Oolong.

Oolong tasted…

Awful.

Awful, yes.

Very good.

So I think you are on board.

Let’s hear some oohs and ahs.

Grant and Martha, I’m reporting live from I-10 near Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles

Where the traffic is terrible.

Everywhere I look, all I can see is ooh of

Oodles of…

Cars?

Autos?

Autos.

Automobiles?

Yes, oodles of autos.

Nicely done.

Nice teamwork there.

Here’s the next one.

I own and have read everything Stephen King has ever written.

You can see I’m very familiar with that ooh.

Author’s oeuvre.

Author’s oeuvre, yes.

If you need to find me while in Florence, I’ve been granted a workspace at their famous museum.

You can find me in my ooh,

My uffizi office.

My Oofitzi office. Very good. I had no idea that my red-brown paint tubes had a leak in it.

I look at the bottom of my backpack, and it’s just OO-AW.

Oozing all over?

Oozing.

Auburn. I don’t know.

Auburn, yes. Nicely done.

Finally, I’ve been in a bunch of heavy metal bands. All the successful ones have had a diarysis over at least one of the letters.

If it didn’t, the band was terrible.

Now, my new band has a diarosis over two vowels.

I call those -oo.

Something umlaut.

Right?

Things are looking up.

Auspicious?

Yes.

Auspicious umlauts.

By the way, this is the only place where you will encounter auspicious umlauts is here on A Way with Words, just so you know.

That’s true.

Not something you find everywhere.

Anyway, that was a very great quiz you guys did.

Well, I’m not saying the quiz was great.

I’m saying you guys were great.

You guys were awesome.

Thank you, John.

Really appreciate it.

We’ll talk to you next week.

Give our best to the family.

Thanks, guys.

You too.

Talk to you next week.

Take care.

Puzzle with us about language, any aspect whatsoever.

Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send your thoughts about language to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Chris. I’m calling from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Hi, Chris. Welcome to the show.

I had a question about a friend of mine, and we were at a party with some music playing,

And she had used the expression that she doesn’t have the spoons.

It was getting kind of late. She was celebrating graduation, kind of had a busy weekend,

And I couldn’t quite hear her over the music, so I asked her to repeat herself.

I thought I just didn’t hear correctly, and she said,

I just don’t have the spoons to stay.

So she ended up going home, you know, getting some rest.

But I told her I never heard of that before.

I thought it was an interesting phrase.

She laughed because she said she also has been told that nobody’s heard that out here in Colorado.

She’s from Florida.

So I don’t know if that’s a connection out there.

But I knew who just to call you and Martha.

Yeah.

Did she explain what she meant by that she didn’t have the spoons?

Yeah.

My understanding, I guess, was just that she doesn’t have the energy and just meaning, you

Know, that the battery was zapped and it was time to rest and relax. Right, right. This is a really

Useful expression, Chris, and it has a wonderful story behind it. Spoon theory is something that

Was developed in 2003 by a woman named Christine Miserandino, and she is a New York writer who has

Lupus. And she was at dinner with a friend and she was trying to explain to her what it’s like to

Try to get through your day if you have this debilitating autoimmune disease. And she was

Looking for some kind of metaphor that would make clear the challenges that she faces. And what she

Came up with was gathering up 12 spoons there in the diner and she hands them to her friend

And she says, okay, these spoons represent all the energy that you are allowed to spend for the day.

So now imagine going through your day, and each time you complete a task,

I’m going to take one of those 12 spoons away from you.

So they do this little exercise where her friend imagines showering.

So that requires one spoon.

She imagines getting breakfast, and Christine takes another spoon from her.

And getting dressed, that’s another spoon.

So each of those tasks costs you a spoon, which represents your store of energy.

And so going through this imaginary day, even before her friend could imagine getting out of the house and going to work, she had already spent six spoons.

And so it’s this fantastic metaphor about rationing out your energy.

And it’s a great way for people with invisible disabilities.

You know, they look fine, but they’ve got maybe an issue with energy and autoimmune disease or something like that.

It’s a great way to explain that you just don’t have any energy left.

And I’m wondering if your friend picked it up from someone with a disability or if she has one herself.

In any case, it’s something that’s so helpful.

In fact, it’s so helpful for folks trying to explain this that a lot of people in the disability community actually call themselves spoonies.

Oh, funny. I love that. That’s amazing.

I never would have known that once I spoke to you, so thank you.

And I love that. That’s a great, great metaphor, like you said, of rationing out with eating utensils.

Yeah, yeah.

And I’m interested that you haven’t run into that term in Colorado because it’s really becoming popular, isn’t it, Grant?

It’s a term that really took hold.

I mean, congratulations to Christine for coining that because it really works.

And I think especially in the age of long COVID, I think we’re going to be running into more and more people who literally, well, not literally, but who are going to find that metaphor useful.

Yeah, the essay itself is very lovely.

You can find it in full on her website at butyoudontlooksick.com.

And near the end, she says, I have learned to live life with an extra spoon in my pocket in reserve.

You need to always be prepared.

And she explains to her friend that she’s having the meal with at this restaurant.

She pulls a spoon out and she says, you’re worth a spoon to me.

Spending this time at this meal with you is important.

And I think that was just a lovely moment and way to show that having this energy for a friend was something that she made time for and energy for.

And it’s even not just energy, Martha, isn’t it?

It’s like also your ability to cope.

When she talks about getting dressed, it’s not just getting dressed.

She talks about like, well, today I have bruises because my chronic disease gives me bruises.

So I need to figure out long sleeves.

And, oh, yeah, my hair is falling out.

And so I need to spend some time, more time than usual with my hair.

And she’s just talking about, you know, if I have a fever, I need to put on a sweater.

So I have to figure out the sweater.

And so it can take her like twice as long to get dressed some mornings than other mornings.

So the spoons just go right out the door.

I’m so happy that you can explain that and share that.

And I told her about your podcast, so I’m going to share this with her.

Yeah, you know, we have to be mindful of how we spend our spoons, whether we’re able-bodied or not.

So thank you both very much.

Our pleasure, Chris.

Thank you for reaching out.

We appreciate it.

You have A Way with Words, Chris.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

And you can find Christine’s essay, The Spoon Theory, on her website, butyoudontlooksick.com.

877-929-9673.

Well, we continue to search for a solution to the problem of how to apologize to other drivers when you accidentally do something wrong.

You cut somebody off in traffic or in a parking lot.

We got a tweet from Julie Burgess, who says, I found one of these at my mother-in-law’s house when I was cleaning out old stuff.

And it’s a picture of a, it looks sort of like a ping pong paddle.

I looked this thing up on eBay, and it’s described as a vintage handheld sign language car paddle with flip over messages to drivers.

Do you remember this tweet?

Oh, no.

Are they rude messages?

Well, the ones that she shared with us were sorry and hi.

But I did a little digging on this.

And you can also, I’m afraid, buy road rage cards that say things like the gas pedal’s on the right or what are you looking at?

But, you know, I could see having, you know, a little ping pong paddle in your car that says sorry and just hold it up for people.

I don’t know.

I have kind of always wanted, you know, like a billboard, electronic billboard in the back of my car that I could post messages on with certain pointed remarks at other drivers.

Ask me about an etymology or something.

Well, that wasn’t what I was thinking.

I would say, ask me how to be a better driver.

Oh.

Give us a call, 877-929-9673. That’s toll-free in the United States and Canada, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Noah Goodman, and I’m calling in from Burlington, Vermont.

Hi, Noah.

So my question is about the word based, B-A-S-E-D.

I have understood it to mean something contrary to the word cringe,

Such as in the meme, I am too cringe for New York, too based for L.A.,

But I fit in just right in Providence, Rhode Island.

So that’s what I’m coming to you with now.

And this is a meme that you see a lot?

Well, my sister sent me that meme.

Oh.

Is she in Providence?

She’s there, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

So based and cringe are opposites, and so based means not cringe, which means?

So to me, based, I feel like means like grounded, well-rounded.

Okay.

And bounded in good-sounding things.

Grounded, bounded, well-rounded, and sounding.

Okay, good.

That’s a well-founded definition.

Yeah, there you go.

I got to say, Noah, the way that you’re defining this is pretty solid.

And I’m not surprised, though, that you’re a little hesitant at putting a definition out there.

At least I think I’m hearing hesitance.

Because there’s been so much argument about based and what it means.

You’ve probably seen it, too.

Yeah, I have.

And slang is so all over the place.

It’s highly context sensitive.

And even when it breaks through to the mainstream, it kind of doesn’t keep one meaning.

There’s all these little subgroups that have their own preferred usage, especially online where a community can have its own usage.

And then they see the word being used somewhere else and they’re like, wait a second.

That’s about how we use it in our group.

So the first place I tend to check isn’t your urban dictionary for this stuff.

It’s often know your meme.

And so there’s a really good explanation on the website Know Your Meme.

Then they talk about the history of this particular word, and it comes in short from the California rapper Lil B, real name Brandon McCartney,

Who coined it from the word basshead, which means someone who uses crack cocaine.

In an interview with Complex Magazine in 2010, he explained that he shortened based from the word basehead, even though basehead was used as an insult where he grew up.

And he took based and reclaimed it and started using it as a positive.

And not long after, people started referring to him as the based god.

And he defined based as being yourself and not being scared of what people think about you and not being afraid to do what you want to do, which I think is a really good, broad definition of based.

Although these days, a lot of times when I see based, it looks like it just means righteous in terms of you did or said something that I agree with.

Yeah.

But based, of course, like I said, has other lives.

It kind of took off, and with the help of 4chan,

Based kind of took on some alt-right connotations

And was mixed with the red pill metaphor from the Matrix movies

And co-opted by the incel, Gamergate, men’s rights communities.

And so it’s, like I said, incredibly context sensitive.

Okay.

So it sounds like it means, like, generally it means, like,

Being your best authentic self, then you’re being based.

But the appraisal is dependent on the appraiser.

Perfectly put.

The appraisal is dependent on the appraiser.

Yes, context matters.

Absolutely.

So if you’re too cringe for New York

And you’re too based for L.A.,

But you fit in perfectly in Providence, Rhode Island,

What does that mean?

The right size pond for this fish.

There you go.

The right size pond for this fish.

I love that.

All right.

Rock and roll.

Thanks for calling, Noah.

We put the base in your face.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks.

I’ll keep it there.

All right, bye.

All righty, bye-bye.

Call us 877-929-9673 or email your language questions and stories to words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, good afternoon.

How are you?

Doing well.

Who’s this and where are you?

I’m Robert Coleman and I’m in Dover, Delaware.

I was born in New York City, and I lived three years in the District of Columbia shortly after my father passed away.

I sort of inherited a mid-Southern accent.

I would say bread and red instead of bread and red, and the kids used to tease me.

Well, okay, I switched to my New York accent, and the word that gets me is I found some people in New York use the word aunt for their, you know, female relatives as opposed to aunt.

And I’ve always used the word aunt.

And I just always wondered, how do we get A-U-N-T to A-N-T?

Well, I think we can flip that question and say, why do most Americans say aunt,

But you happen to be one of the people who picked up the aunt pronunciation?

Because it just so happens that when you moved to D.C.,

You went to part of the country where people are more likely to say aunt or aunt.

I don’t know if you can hear the difference there.

Instead of aunt.

Oh, yeah.

Most of the country, except for New England and strangely part of Minnesota, do say aunt.

But it’s just really interesting to me that you fit the pattern exactly.

I’m surprised, though, that when you moved to New York City, you didn’t hear people saying aunt.

Because New York City does tend to be a split city on the aunt versus aunt zone.

Aunt and uncle are aunt and uncle.

You didn’t hear other people saying aunt?

Yes, I said nobody ever teased me in New York.

They actually didn’t tease me in D.C. Either, but most of the time in D.C. I did hear the word aunt.

Yeah, there are some people in the United States who they might talk about aunts and uncles,

But when they refer to a specific person, they may say Auntie Mame or, you know, Aunt Kate, something like that.

So it becomes more of a title rather than just a descriptor.

And there are something around five different pronunciations of the word in the United States, which is also interesting.

And two or three in England and the rest of the United Kingdom even more.

So it’s one of those strangely variable words, probably because it’s so old.

But the very heart of the ont pronunciation is in New England.

This goes back to a time when New England in particular, but all the major East Coast cities,

Looked to London and the British Isles and the educated class there for their cues on how to pronounce words.

They looked to the British Isles for what an educated person should sound like.

I’m in the minority, okay.

No, but it’s a long minority.

This division between these pronunciations goes back at least 200 years.

It’s been remarked upon for a very long time.

Thank you for having me on.

I really enjoyed it.

Take care now.

Thanks, Rob.

Have a good afternoon.

You take care.

Bye-bye.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Well, aunties and uncles, give us a call, 877-929-9673.

Email us words@waywordradio.org or talk to us on Twitter @wayword.

Stick around for more of A Way with Words.

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

I want to talk some more about the book that I mentioned at the top of the show because it is fun, fun, fun.

It’s called The Puzzler, One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever,

From Crossword Puzzles to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life.

It’s by A.J. Jacobs, who’s known for writing in sort of a light, breezy style.

But this book is also chock full of really interesting information about all kinds of puzzles.

Like, for example, did you know that jigsaw puzzles were originally called dissected maps?

Oh, no, I didn’t know that.

In the late 18th century, there was a British mapmaker named John Spilsbury

Who glued a map to a wooden board and then carved it up.

And he sold these maps to British nobility as a means of teaching geography.

And Jacobs visits jigsaw puzzle makers in the U.S.

He and his family even end up competing in the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships in Spain, representing the United States.

Wow, that’s cool.

It’s cool that there’s even a competition, but it’s also cool that he got to that level.

Well, apparently they were the only people from the U.S. Who went to it.

But still, good for them.

Yeah, that’s a great story.

Jacobs visits with speedcubers, those people who can do a Rubik’s Cube in just seconds.

Grant, I’m sure that you’ve played the New York Times spelling bee puzzle before.

Yes.

Well, he interviews the 25-year-old editor of that puzzle, and they talk about some of the controversies that come up when he fails to include a word or includes a word that people have problems with.

And Jacobs also finagled a trip to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to try to crack one of the most famous codes in the world.

Oh, I know. This is the one in like the foyer or the lobby, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it’s maybe in a courtyard or something like that.

But about 30 years ago, the CIA commissioned this sculpture with 1,800 or so seemingly random letters and question marks.

And only one or two people in the world know what this code actually translates to.

But there are online groups, maybe you’ve run into these online, of code-cracking enthusiasts.

These groups have sprung up trying to solve this puzzle, and nobody’s been able to do it yet.

Oh, I love it. I love it.

So the book has all kinds of fun things like that in it.

But it also goes into the philosophy and psychology of puzzling.

I mean, he touches on sociological research that suggests that one of the few situations where people of deeply divergent political beliefs can actually work together well is when they’re trying to solve a crossword puzzle.

So he actually gets pretty thinky in there, too.

It’s a book with heart.

But wait, there’s more.

This book also includes 19 Puzzles in a Variety of Styles by Greg Pliska.

And longtime listeners of this program will remember that Greg often gave us quizzes on the show before he went on to an illustrious career in the music industry, working with Steve Martin and others.

Oh, so there’s A Way with Words connection.

How wonderful.

There is A Way with Words connection.

And in fact, if you go to our website, waywordradio.org, you can find a bunch of Greg’s puzzles and us trying to solve them.

There are quite a few of them still on our website.

The word try is important.

But there’s also a website for this wonderful book.

Yes, it’s called thepuzzlebook.com, and you can find even more puzzles there.

But I really, really recommend this book.

It’s called The Puzzler, One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever,

From Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs.

And we’ll link to the book and more information about it and the website,

From our website at waywordradio.org.

Call us with your questions, 877-929-9673, toll-free in the U.S. And Canada, 24 hours a day.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha.

This is Joan calling from Dallas.

My question relates to the glottal stop.

It’s a sound that happens like if a word has two T’s in it usually.

Instead of pronouncing water with the T’s, you would say water.

Or cattle would be cattle.

And even you can do that with glottal stop.

Good point.

I follow on TikTok a woman named Miss Moneypenny, and she posts the Scots Word of the Day and other things about Scotland and language and culture.

And she got a comment on one of her posts asking her why did she pronounce W-A-T-E-R as water.

So she responded that it was part of her accent and it was an accepted pronunciation in the Scots language.

And she actually showed the dictionary page where it said that you could pronounce it as water.

And she commented that when people hear you using a glottal stop, they think you’re ignorant or poorly educated or lazy or you’re not speaking the language properly.

And that resonated with me because my mom went to elementary school in Brooklyn, and this was about the early 1930s.

And they had a speech teacher come in to get rid of the kids’ Brooklyn accents.

The reasons were all together now because people would think you were ignorant, poorly educated, lazy, and can’t speak the language properly.

And the word that would always trip my mom up was the word bottle.

She would pronounce it bottle, and they’d be all over her.

So my question, finally, is what is it about the glottal stop that gets people so judgmental?

I mean, 1930s Brooklyn to 2022 Scotland.

Why do people hate on the glottal stop?

Oh, wow.

You’ve made this out very well, Joan.

And Martha and I are so ready for this topic because we, as you know, as a listener to the show,

We have strong feelings about people judging the language of other people.

And particularly when they just automatically default to calling different dialects lazy or stupid or uneducated.

Those aren’t the right words for that because there’s no one English and never has been.

Now, there are Englishes that have prestige, usually because they’re associated with, let’s say, newscasters

Or the educated people that you hear on TV.

But those aren’t necessarily better.

They’re just simply given prestige because of power or authority

Or influence or politics or economics.

And those aren’t reasons that have anything at all

To do with the quality of their language

Because it just as easily could have been another dialect

That was raised up and called the prestige dialect.

So anyway, sorry, I’m getting excited here.

Let’s go back to water for a second.

Martha and I have talked about this before, and I don’t want to get into it too much because you can search on our website at waywordradio.org and find that segment.

But we’ve talked about that in the U.S. Alone, there are 15 different pronunciations of the word water, W-A-T-E-R.

And there are quite a few as well in the United Kingdom across the different dialects.

It’s just one of those words that lends itself to pronunciations.

And the glottal stop occurs naturally in many dialects of English.

In North American English, in the U.S. And Canada, it occurs in words like -oh.

You know, when you make a mistake and go -oh, between those two syllables is a glottal stop.

The beginning of the word apple, for many people, is a glottal stop.

In the phonetic inventory of Hawaiian, the Hawaiian language, a glottal stop is a part of it.

The traditional pronunciation of the state is Hawaii, with a glottal stop in there.

So these occur.

Now, in New York City, it’s interesting.

It’s far back.

We know it was at least 100 years ago.

And your 1930s story about your mother is so perfect for this.

The glottal stop was recognized as a part of it.

It was not just New York City but Boston and peppered throughout North America

Because there was an influence in New York City and Boston

And these big East Coast cities to speak a bit more like the people in the UK.

There was a lot of trade back and forth.

A lot of travel back and forth, a lot of influence back and forth. So I’m not surprised. And Joan,

Your story is one we’ve heard before from people who’ve called the show or wrote to us. And

Sometimes they write to and say, I don’t want to talk about this on the air, but I wanted you to

Know this is what happened to me. And they tell these horrific stories about being in schools and

Being forced not to speak their own language because they’re not from the United States,

They’re from somewhere else, or being told that they sound stupid and to sit in the back of the

Class, or, and this is not the way that it should be done. Diversity of language is normal. Diversity

Of dialect is normal. People do speak differently, and we have to learn to accept that. There is more

Than one way to speak, and it’s so interesting to me that when people talk about the language of

Other people as being wrong, they often and usually do not apply that same analysis to their

Own speech. They are not critics of the way they talk themselves. So to get back to Joan’s original

Question, which is why is the glottal stop in particular so looked down on, I suppose it’s

Because it’s associated with a dialect that doesn’t have that kind of prestige of various

Dialects. And that’s interesting, too, because more and more I’m hearing younger people use a

Glottal stop just casually, you know, press the button. Button, button, kitten. Yeah. So people

Who think that it’s nonstandard may be hearing it more and more. So, Joan, thank you so much for the

Opportunity. We really appreciate the question. It’s a great one. Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you

For letting me be on the show. And I really enjoy that the podcast. I’ve been listening to it forever.

All right.

Take care of yourself.

Be well.

All right.

Take care.

Bye, Joan.

Thanks.

Martha and I are preparing to do some road shows, and you can always find out more at our website at waywordradio.org slash events.

And when we go on the road, we love to take questions from the audience, and we’d love to hear your experiences there or on our voicemail.

Call us and let us know about your experience with dialect and how people have treated you, how fairly or unfairly, because you spoke differently.

877-929-9673.

Or tell your story in email, words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

This is Leslie Ehrlich from Ithaca.

Hey, Leslie, welcome.

What can we do for you?

Well, I was curious about why the qualifying race is called a heat before the main event.

When they’re trying to pick participants to run in a race.

And what got you to wondering about this, Leslie?

I don’t know.

Okay.

That’s fair.

So it’s not keeping you awake at night or anything like that?

It’s not keeping me awake at night, nor have I ever attended a horse race

Or even a human race except for my kids in high school.

So go figure.

So why are they called heats?

These are the little races they do before the big race, right?

Yes, exactly.

To determine who is qualified to run.

Well, it goes back about five centuries ago when there was this thing you could do in English

Where you would call an instance of heating something over a fire as a heat.

Like you might have one instance of putting an iron in a fire to soften it for metal work was one heat.

Or you might heat up concrete or chunks of metal for whatever metal work or other purposes.

That also would be known as a heat.

And a round of physical activity of your body was known as a heat.

You know, one instance of, let’s say, chopping wood, that’d be one heat.

And so if you’ve ever seen a horse race, I know you haven’t, but maybe on TV,

You’ve probably seen that they can work up quite a sweat.

They get quite heated.

And so it’s a natural thing that we would call that a heat as well.

That’s interesting.

Yeah.

With horses, it was first used to refer to their exercise runs

Or their warm-ups before a race.

But after a while, it came to refer to kind of a single race

In an overall competition, you know,

Where they kind of figure out everyone’s standing

Before they get to the big deal kind of one

Where the grand trophy is handed out.

All right. Thank you very much.

Yeah, sure.

All right. Bye.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, so after the horse racing, it naturally spread to other things like automobiles,

And then with humans, athletic and non-athletic competitions.

So you can have heats of spelling bees, for example.

Oh, is that what they call them? They don’t call them rounds?

Oh, they probably call them rounds, but you could still call them heats, right?

Well, yeah, you could burn a lot of calories, you know, trying to remember how to spell that word.

Doesn’t your brain burn the most calories when you’re just sitting still?

It’s the one burning up the most energy.

I just heard the percentage the other day, and it’s huge.

That’s why those chess masters lose weight during tournaments, because their brains are working so hard.

I forget the percentage, but it’s really high.

What’s the linguistic question keeping you awake at night?

We’d love to hear about it.

Call us, 877-929-9673, or send it to us in email.

That address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, hi. This is Mike Reynolds calling from Jacksonville, Florida.

And I have been always fascinated by a phrase that my father had been talking and saying all the time I was growing up.

He came from Michigan and was in World War II.

And the phrase is, there’s no use in keeping the dogs and doing the barking yourself.

And he would use this when I was supposed to mow the lawn or he would use it if he wanted someone to give him a glass of water.

And I was just kind of curious, what was the history of that phrase?

Where did it come from?

Because in the case of my father, he never had dogs in his growing up, and we never had any dogs in our house.

So it was kind of a strange thing that he was referencing these, but it was always a way for him to delegate to me or my sister.

So I was just kind of curious if you can give me any insights into that phrase.

There’s no use in keeping dogs and doing the barking yourself?

Yes, exactly.

And so your understanding was that he was trying to delegate a task to somebody else, right?

Exactly.

Exactly.

Usually the kids.

-huh.

And so when you heard that phrase, you just went and did the task.

Is that right, Mike?

Exactly.

I mean, it was obviously he was like an order, truthfully.

But basically he used it as a fun way to say, go do this.

Right.

For me.

Why have children?

Why have children if you’re not going to make them work?

You just said, why have children and do anything for yourself?

Yeah, it’s kind of the same idea, actually.

You know, if you’re going to hire somebody to do a job, don’t do it yourself.

It’s pointless.

Or, you know, if you delegate a task to someone, then, you know, it’s their task.

Don’t bother with it.

What’s really interesting, Mike, is that this is a really old notion.

It’s a really old proverb that you see all the way back at least to the 1500s.

There’s one citation, yeah, from the 1500s that goes, don’t keep a dog and bark yourself.

And Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, back in 1738, describes this conversation between a lady and her servant.

And the lady says to the servant, good miss, stir the fire.

And the good miss, the servant, is trying to flatter the lady.

And she says, indeed, your ladyship could have stirred it much better.

And then the lady says, I won’t keep a dog and bark myself.

And it’s not only in English.

You also find it in Dutch.

My Dutch is very poor.

But it’s something like, commandeer je hond en blaf self, which is basically command the dog and bark yourself, which is something you don’t want to do.

You don’t tell the dog a command and then do the barking.

Exactly, exactly.

Let’s hear your version of the saying again, or your dad’s version.

His version was, there’s no keeping the dogs and doing the barking yourself.

No keeping the dogs and doing the barking yourself.

That’s wonderful.

All right, Mike, take care of yourself.

Be well.

Thank you very much.

Have a good day.

Bye-bye.

Thanks so much.

Bye-bye.

Thanks to Rick O. In Boise, who also asked us about this expression.

We know you’ve got expressions that have been tossed around your family for years and years.

And you said to yourself, well, I should call Martha and Grant.

Well, today’s that day.

877-929-9673.

Our team includes senior producer Stefanie Levine, engineer and editor Tim Felten,

Production assistant Rachel Elizabeth Weissler, and quiz guide John Chaneski.

We’d love to hear from you, no matter where you are in the world.

Go to waywordradio.org slash contact.

Subscribe to the podcast, hear hundreds of past episodes,

And get the newsletter at waywordradio.org.

Whenever you have a language story or question,

Our toll-free line is open in the U.S. And Canada,

1-877-929-9673.

Or send your thoughts to words@waywordradio.org.

A Way with Words is an independent production of Wayword, Inc.,

A nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language.

Special thanks to Michael Breslauer, Josh Eckels, Clare Grotting, Bruce Rogow, Rick Seidenwurm, and Betty Willis.

Thanks for listening. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett. Until next time, goodbye.

Bye.