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Hola, che!
In this week’s episode, it’s a game about food names! (“What would you serve to a plumber?” “Leeks.”) We also discuss how to correct a new sweetheart’s grammar, “infracaninophile,” “nonplussed,” and “Word up!”:
https://waywordradio.org/word-up/
One caller this week wanted an easy way to distinguish between “who” and “whom.” Several of you sent in a handy reminder that usually works. As Karen Boyd of San Diego wrote:
“When trying to decide whether to use ‘who’ or ‘whom,’ replace it with ‘he’ or ‘him.’ Your sentence won’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s usually pretty clear which you’d use. If you’d say ‘he,’ use ‘who,’ and if you’d say ‘him,’ use ‘whom.'”
Works for us. Thanks, all.
When you finish typing a sentence, do you leave one space after the period? Are two spaces “totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong”? The debate’s raging on our Facebook page:
http://facebook.com/waywordradio
Has the auto-correct feature on your smartphone caused an embarrassing goof in a text message? Ben Zimmer has a funny New York Times column about them:
Speaking of embarrassing goofs, we made one in last week’s newsletter. The correct name of the Alaska station that now carries our show is KMXT HD-2. We’re on there Wednesday nights at 9, and look forward to hearing from our new listeners.
BEHIND THE SCENES: Listeners often ask about the music between segments on our show. They’re selected by our tune-savvy technical editor, Tim Felten.
Our plans for a redesign of our website include posting information about them. In the meantime, a workaround:
Click on the link below, which takes you to Public Radio Exchange, an online marketplace for public-radio programming.
Select an “A Way with Words” episode, and scroll down for that week’s musical selections.
Rock on,
Martha and Grant
