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Potato Wagon

Thunderstorms might sound scary, but playful explanations for all those booms can help reassure little ones: How about the potato wagon’s rolling over the bridge? Or the angels are going bowling? Plus, if you just finished enjoying an audiobook, you might say you’ve read it, but a listener asks if there’s a better word. And: towns with names that are three letters long — or less. They’re fun to say, and super easy to spell! The town of Eek, Alaska, for example. Plus, the use of humming to mean “stinking,” slashfic and shipping, woodshedding, ratcatcher, bib and tucker, a memoir that features recipes handed down through a Black Appalachian family, a “buzzling” puzzle or a puzzling “buzzle,” I had one of those, but the wheels came off, and lots more.

This episode first aired January 18, 2025.

This Town Name Isn’t Big Enough for the Both of Us

 It’s hard to remember how to spell the names of some cities. Tallahassee, Florida, for example. Then there are towns with very few letters to remember. Y, a tiny town in northern France, has only two main streets, which come together to form the shape of the letter “Y.” Then there’s Å, in Northern Norway. In the United States, there’s the Alaska town of Eek, the name of which derives from a Yupik word meaning “two eyes,” and Opp, Alabama, named for lawyer Henry Opp.

Humming Along — Like It’s Covered in Flies?

 On a busy day in the emergency room, Alisa of Dallas, Texas, told an efficient colleague that she was really humming, meaning it as a compliment. Her colleague took offense, maintaining that humming meant “smelly.” Since the 18th century, English speakers in the UK have used humming to mean “stinking,” probably a reference to the busy, buggy nature of a manure or compost heap.

Shipping a Couple Isn’t About Products but About Attraction

 Shipping characters in fiction in ways the original author didn’t intend — picturing them in new non-canon relationships — goes back at least as far as so-called slash fiction or slashfic, a type of fan fiction involving same-sex romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters. In the 1990s and possibly earlier, for example, Star Trek fanzines featured K/S slash fiction imagining Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk as a couple. Discussion of shipping, shippers, and ships — short for relationshipping, relationshipper, and relationships — started in the 1990s with The X-Files, the TV series featuring Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, an attractive pair fans fervently hoped would explore each other’s Area 51.

Reblacing P with B to Solve a Barticular Buzzle

 Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s puzzle is all about substituting the letter B for a certain letter that falls between the letters O and Q. For example, if you’re substituting the letter B for that particular letter, what would you call the skill that some drivers find difficult when it comes to inserting one’s car between two others?

Do You “Read” Audiobooks? Or Some Other Verb?

 Jane in Denver, Colorado, is a fan of audiobooks, but wonders if there’s a better word than read to denote having experienced such a book by listening. Some people have suggested ear reading or audio reading or simply experiencing a book. Or you might say you audibled a book. But there’s no harm in saying you read an audiobook.

The Wheels Came Off

 A listener named Tami contacted the show by WhatsApp to say that whenever someone would be talking about a subject that nobody else knew anything about, her father-in-law would respond with I had one of those, but the wheels came off.

Woh, Baby

 James in Charlotte, North Carolina, notes that when discussing a newborn baby, he’s heard people say something that sounded like, “That baby ‘woh’ seven pounds, two ounces.” He’s never heard that usage before. The “woh” sound in that case may just be a pronunciation of were that lacks rhoticity, that is, an R sound.

Ratcatcher Garment in the Horse World

 Robin, in Jacksonville, Florida, has long wondered why the traditional collar word by equestrians is called a ratcatcher. There’s a long history in the horse world of referring to various forms of attire as a ratcatcher, including blouses and jackets, or to a ratting jacket or a ratting suit. All of these are in opposition to the very formal traditional fox-hunting clothing.

Black Country Kitchen Ghosts

 Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks (Bookshop|Amazon) is about the foodways and folkways passed down through five generations of a Black Appalachian family. The book, by novelist and poet Crystal Wilkinson, is part memoir, part cookbook, and thoroughly delicious.

Woodshedding Music

 When a musician is woodshedding a passage of music, they’re trying to master that part by repeatedly practicing it in private, as if having retreated to do so in a woodshed, away from others who might be bothered by it.

Tummy Egg

 After misunderstanding the term tummy ache as tummy egg, a three-year-old has questions.

Bib and Tucker

 If someone tells you they want you to get your bib and tucker on, they’re telling you to get dressed up in your Sunday best, tucker being a bit of lace formerly worn at the neckline and bib being a shirtfront.

Thundering of Bowling Angels and Rolling Bread Wagons

 There are lots of colloquial phrases to explain away the cacophony of a thunderstorm: The potato wagons are rolling, The tater wagon’s going over the bridge, The potato wagon broke down, and God is dumping out potatoes and washing them off. In Appalachia, you might hear thunder referred to as the Lord’s bread wagon or the Lord’s corn wagon. Other expressions include: The angels are going bowling, St. Peter’s going bowling, The clouds are bumping together, The angels are baking cookies, or God is taking out the garbage cans.

Duty of the Writer

 Iranian-American poet Solmaz Sharif once observed that “The duty of the writer…is to remind us that we will die. And that we aren’t dead yet.”

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

Book Mentioned in the Episode

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson (Bookshop|Amazon)

Music Used in the Episode

Title Artist Album Label
Soul MachineThe Meters The Meters Josie
HanumanMedeski Scofield Martin Wood Out Louder Indirecto Records
Be My LadyThe Meters New Directions Warner Brothers
JuliaMedeski Scofield Martin Wood Out Louder Indirecto Records
Spinning WheelLonnie Smith Drives Blue Note
ShakaraFela Kuti Shakara EMI
The Other SideSure Fire Soul Ensemble Step Down Colemine Records

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