Howdy, It’s a Wit’s War!

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. And boy, are we glad to be back.

Grant, how glad are we to be back with a brand new show and a brand new season of A Way with Words?

We’re as happy as a dog with two tails. We’re wagging on both ends.

And I’m feeling, as we say in the South, finer than frog hair split four ways.

And the good news is that in the meantime, we’ve been very, very busy.

In fact, we invite you to visit the new A Way with Words website, where we have a brand new discussion forum for word lovers.

You’ll find our new site at waywordradio.org.

Well done, Grant.

And, you know, speaking of, one discussion that I’ve really enjoyed on our forum lately is titled Howdy, a Wits War.

Now, Grant, when you saw that name, Howdy, a Wits War, did you have any idea what that conversation was going to be about?

I had no idea because, you know, people throw language questions at us from all corners.

You never know what they’re going to ask.

Yeah, well, you know, I looked at that and it looked so weird that I started thinking about it.

Howdy, a wits war.

And I realized that it was an anagram of A Way with Words.

In the same thread somebody said, A Way with Words could also be shadowy raw wit.

Yeah, and I figured you would like that, shadowy raw wit.

Anyway, if you have shadowy raw wit or a favorite anagram to share,

Or if you have a question or comment about any aspect of language, wordplay, word origins, grammar, slang, give us a call.

The number is 877-929-9673.

Or send us an email at our brand new email address, words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is John from Manhattan.

Hello, John from Manhattan. Manhattan, Kansas?

No, Manhattan, New York, New York City.

All right.

What’s your language question today, John?

All right, well, I’m a middle school science teacher at an independent school here in the city.

And a number of years ago, I had a student who, she liked to ask questions to try and get me off topic,

Because they know they could.

And so she raises her hand one day, and she says, where did Pinkies come from?

Or where did they get the name Pinkies?

And I looked at her, and instead of just moving on, I decided I was going to, you know, teach her a lesson.

So I looked at her and I said, you know, it’s very interesting that you mention that, because I know the answer.

And I proceeded to tell her that it came from

In the middle ages in England

When women would dye fabric

They would move the rings onto their little finger

And work the fabric with their hands

And they’d have to keep their little fingers out of the dye

And since they’re in England

And they’d pull their hands out of the dye

And all of the fingers on their hand would be

Whatever color of dye

Except their little finger

Which stayed pink.

And of course the class all looked at me

And they said oh okay really.

And I said no.

And stop asking those questions

And let’s move on to something

We were talking about the atom or something.

And since then

So you did tell them that you made that up?

I worked with these kids.

If I ever gave an answer to something

That sounded a little far-fetched

They’d kind of look at me and go

Is this another pinky story?

And we’d move on.

But I never could quite figure out

Where that term actually came from.

John, that is awesome.

That is awesome.

I protest because, John, I know you told them that you were only kidding,

But we often have to undo the work of well-meaning teachers.

Sorry.

Oh, but come on.

They all knew it was a joke.

They all wave their pinkies at him now.

Oh, yeah.

And when I’ve told this story to other friends of mine, everyone has the same reaction.

They look at me and they go, oh, really?

No, but no one seems to know where it came from.

But I think you have a career in writing false etymologies.

Did you write that one on the internet?

Enough people doing that.

Don’t do that.

I haven’t done that.

I’ll put the definition up on Wikipedia.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Grant’s going to have a heart attack here.

I’ll have it down in a half an hour, and I’ll get you banned.

But I bet you’re the same guy who wrote that Life in the 1500s email that’s circulating, right?

Yeah, full of falsehoods, just for the record.

Well, I love this story, Grant.

Grant’s upset.

Are you upset?

No, no, I’m listening, Marth.

What do you got here, lady?

Well, not a whole lot.

I mean, all we know is that it comes from the Dutch for little finger.

Yeah, and that’s what my wife and I had figured out.

We’d seen that it was a Scandinavian thing, and that was about it.

I believe it’s from Dutch.

But how did it get into English?

Well, I don’t think it showed up into English until the 19th century.

Before then, people were calling them little fingers.

And another fantastic word.

Now, you can present this one to your students, John.

How about another name for your pinky is your auricular?

Auricular.

Oh, that’s good.

Auricular.

Let me spell that for you, A-U-R-I-C-U-L-A-R, auricular.

Now, as a science teacher, do you have any idea why it would be called auricular?

Auricular.

Because you put your finger behind your ear when you want to hear better.

It’s like your ear.

So it hooks like your ear?

If you hook your finger?

I don’t know.

It’s the little finger that you use to clean out your ear.

Oh, okay.

That’s a good one.

I like that.

Yeah, and that’s really true.

You can tell your students the true story there.

Wow, we’ve been all over the map here, John.

That’s great.

But, yeah.

That’s it.

That’s all we got.

All right.

Take a ring and stick that in your ear.

Audi 5000.

Talk to you later, buddy.

Okay, thanks a lot.

Thanks, John.

This was fun.

So long.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I’m going to start calling this my auricular ring.

Now, that sounds vaguely naughty, too.

Never mind.

So I was just going to call this my auricular ink pen?

What?

Oh, because you stick it behind your…

I use it to clean the wax out of my ears.

Do you know what Q-tips were originally called, by the way?

Don’t know.

Speaking of cleaning ears, Q-tips, the original name of Q-tips was Baby Gays.

G-A-Y-S, Baby Gays.

Gay had a different meaning back then, you know?

Well, it sure did, and this poor guy invented these little Q-tip-like things to clean his baby’s ears,

And they were originally called Baby Gays, but it changed to Q-tips later on.

If you’ve got a question about words or language or you’ve got a dispute that you need settled, if there’s a bar bet on the line, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673 or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Susie calling from Carlsbad. How are you?

Hi, Susie.

Hello, Susie.

I have what I think is either a really simple or a really complicated question.

Oh, no.

My mom and I sometimes talk about what newscasters say, and we laugh at them.

And she called me one day and said that a newscaster had pronounced the word homage as homage.

And we were thinking that perhaps he or she had read it off the teleprompter.

Wait, can you say that again for us? How did you say it?

The news person said homage.

And then my mom and I were talking about, well, is it homage or is it homage?

Oh, how cute. And you and your mom call each other as soon as you hear something on the TV?

Oh, yeah. We talk all the time.

Oh, really?

And she thinks that I should know these things because I teach English.

And I, you know, as you know, there’s too much to know with language. I don’t know everything.

That’s right.

Yes, you’re in the same boat I am.

And people are like, there are only 650,000 words.

You know all of them and their etymologies.

So your pronunciation, when you say it, when you’re not thinking about it, how do you say it?

Well, I actually would say it two different ways.

If thinking about, you know, people visiting Graceland, they go there to pay homage to Elvis.

But then if, like, a filmmaker makes a film, they might do an homage to a previous director.

So you’re spelling both of those H-O-M-A-G-E, right?

Exactly.

The reason I asked you how you pronounce it, and it’s interesting that you pronounce it two ways, is because I do that too.

I do too.

I don’t really think about it.

I know that I do it because when you think about it, then it starts to fall apart and you start to question yourself.

And you just avoid the word altogether, right?

But I think I can – I just made some notes here.

I think I can count six possible pronunciations of this, including the two you have, the one the TV pronouncer has, and some other ones.

Homage?

You’ve seen homage?

Well, that would be correct.

I’ve heard it.

Listen, homage, homage, homage, homage, homage.

Oh, my.

Okay.

So are all of those, you know, acceptable?

The first one is probably your best one.

Homage.

Homage is going to get you in the door every time.

And the other ones will either get you laughed at or thrown out as a French pretender.

Seriously, people will think that you’re trying to claim the crown of France.

Homage.

Okay, so my mom and I were out of line by laughing?

I don’t think so.

Not at homage?

Come on.

I mean, honestly, Susie, what’s weird about this is that I pronounce those exactly the same way you do.

I would say going to Graceland to pay homage to Elvis.

And I would also say this is an homage to Kandinsky that I’ve just created with Q-tips or something.

But you would say in that pretentious accent.

Stop it, Graham.

But, Susie, the funny thing is if you look at the authorities, if you look at the dictionaries, they’ll most often tell you to say homage.

And that just grates on me.

I just feel like I’m wearing shoes that are too tight or something.

And I just all my life I’ve said it exactly the way you do.

And so I’m sort of grudgingly, teeth grindingly trying to train myself to say homage so that I won’t offend the grammatical sticklers out there.

But this is one.

They’re a minority.

But they’re right.

They’re the authorities.

No, they’re not.

No, they’re not.

They’re not right on this.

It feels like wearing a really itchy sweater.

Okay, well, that’s good, I guess.

You know, we’re not wrong.

When I’m saying homage,

When I’m saying homage,

If somebody,

If they want to be safe,

Homage is going to get you out of trouble.

Okay, homage.

Okay.

Right.

And with the accent on the first syllable.

With the H.

I appreciate that.

Martha’s like holding her breath

And biting her tongue.

I’ve created discord amongst the two of you.

Not for the first time.

She’s going to give me noogies when I’m not looking.

Well, thank you both so much.

I appreciate it.

You’re welcome.

Thank you, Susie.

You guys have a good day.

Bye-bye.

All right, you too.

Grant, don’t you just love that Susie and her mom call each other as soon as they hear some gaffe on the TV?

I just love that.

And, Mom, next time call us and share it with us.

The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

So, Grant, I was looking at our words@waywordradio.org mailbox the other day, and there was an email from Luke McNeil.

Now, Luke lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his fair city, and he wrote us about a phenomenon that he’s noticed.

You know, when you’re sitting there quietly in public and you’re listening to a podcast, maybe you’re in line at the grocery store with your headphones on, and then all of a sudden, and I know you know you do this all the time, right?

But all of a sudden, somebody in the podcast says something really funny, and you burst out laughing.

And, of course, everybody turns and looks at you because you’re the only one who’s heard anything funny, the only person laughing.

Well, Luke wrote us to say that there ought to be a word for that phenomenon, and he’s got a proposal.

He’d like to call it a pod snicker.

And he writes, this has happened to me frequently, and I will say that your podcast has at times aroused a pod snicker from me, often while I’m on the train.

Grant, I love that image and I love that word and I love the fact that Luke is pod snickering while he’s listening to us on the train.

What do you think?

Oh, I like the fact that he’s listening to us.

But do we need another pod word?

I think I’ve got 40 of those in my database.

Really?

Like what?

Yeah.

Oh, like pod slurping, which is when you take your iPod and you plug it into another computer to steal files.

Tons of that stuff.

Really?

But I like it.

I like it.

But it’s good.

You do kind of need, I mean, you could just use outright embarrassment because sometimes you look up on the subway and they’re like people giving you the steely eye because maybe they think that you’re laughing at their clothes.

Well, I like it.

I think it captures a phenomenon that needs a word.

There ought to be a word for that.

So is there something that you think there ought to be a word for?

If so, email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Straight ahead.

Stay tuned for a word puzzle and more of your calls.

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And we’re joined once again by our very own quiz guy, Greg Pliska, whose name, by the way, anagrams to Sparkle Gig.

Welcome, Sparkle.

Well, thanks, Martha.

I wish I could anagram your name as quickly as you did mine.

It would be ham something, I think.

Or cheese.

I have rat beans or something.

Greg, you’re lucky I didn’t use gargle skip.

I have used that myself before.

There’s something else with silk egg that I can’t remember now either.

Oh, nice.

Nice.

I’ll have to go back and work on those some more.

What do you have for today, Greg?

I have got a little quiz assist challenge for you about the year 2007.

80?

Either one.

I’m doing BC next week.

All right.

No, I’ll tell you how it goes.

You ready?

Yes.

We’re back on the air and it’s heaven.

Our joy meter’s gone to 11.

And so it is time to present you in rhyme a news quiz on 2007.

Wow.

Yeah, I thought you’d like that.

As has become our tradition, we’re going to look back at the events of the past year in limerick form.

You know how this works.

I read you a limerick with a blank at the end, which you’ll fill in with the answer.

Let me give you an example.

Al Gore’s future looks pretty swell.

In awards, he has come to excel.

With not one hanging chad in Oslo, he’ll add to his Emmy and Oscar…

A Nobel.

Nobel, absolutely.

So, if you’re ready, we’ll review a few high and low lights from the year that was 2007.

All right.

Okay, shoot.

Here we go.

Their congressional loss was a squeaker and the Republicans’ future looked bleaker.

Pelosi’s tenure, historical, began with a landmark, rhetorical, when Bush used the phrase…

Mrs. Speaker?

Oh, close. That’s not exactly…

Mrs. Speaker.

How about Madam?

Madam Speaker.

Madam would be correct, Martha. Thank you.

Yes, he was the first president to begin a State of the Union address with those words.

Wow.

Wow.

Going from the sublime to the less sublime, here’s another one.

Accused of using some banned magic wands, it’s with his maybe juiced bat, he responds.

With Aaron and Ruth, we felt sure of a truth that’s been muddied now by…

Barry Bonds.

Barry Bonds, of course.

Yeah, but the thing is, we’re the hard ones.

I got, you know, one and a half lines and I already had the answer, dude.

Come on.

We haven’t seen each other for a while.

I don’t want to hurt you guys.

Oh, the old I’m holding back excuse.

You should get most of these, but after the end of the first line, you’re still going to run.

I listened it for you.

Yeah, we know all those excuses.

All right, here’s one that is maybe a little more challenging.

The Sears Tower for sure scrapes the sky, and Taipei 101’s pretty high,

Though it’s still under construction, we’ve seen the induction of the world’s tallest tower in Shanghai.

I was going to say Dubai.

And you would be correct.

Oh, I am?

It is Dubai.

I thought there was one in Shanghai.

It has already been outpaced.

The Shanghai World Financial Center, which is about 492 meters tall, the Burj Dubai is at 575 meters.

And when it’s completed, which is when it will be officially recognized as a building, it is projected at 818 meters, twice the height of our very own Empire State Building.

Translation is there’s a guy in Dubai, not intended.

There’s an architect in Dubai who’s having a midlife crisis.

Instead of buying a red convertible like everyone else, he says, I’m going to build the biggest darn building out there.

And he says, what do you think of that, honey?

She’s in.

You can – they’re building everything in Dubai now.

I saw that.

They’re building a full-size model of Dubai in Dubai.

Take that Washington monument.

And then they’re building one inside that.

Yeah, exactly.

Fractal Dubai.

It’ll be the most popular entertainment of mine.

Mathematicians will go.

And never come back.

They’ll be lost.

Right.

Oh, man.

All right.

Well, let’s do one for our listeners on the West Coast.

While his posh wife would just sweetly peck him.

You probably have the answer by now right there, but I’ll go on.

While his posh wife would just sweetly peck him, his soccer opponents might deck him.

Though his contract is galactic, his play has been anticlimactic.

He’s L.A.’s new star.

Let’s see.

Oh, Martha.

Beckham.

David Beckham.

You know, if you were a Spice Girl, Martha, which Spice Girl would you be?

I am Sporty Spice.

You can make up a new one, too.

Oh, I can?

You can be like etymology spice or something.

Can I be nerdy spice?

Nerdy spice.

All three of us can’t be nerdy spice, though.

That’s true.

I’m going to be puzzle spice.

We’re all spice rack.

Puzzle spice, I like that.

No, you’re Sparkle gig.

Well, hey, Sparkle, do you have one more?

In fact, I do have exactly one more.

Sparkly little fairy pony.

One more, Hamburg.

Here we go.

To counter the claim that he’s moody towards family, he said, hello, Judy.

Was it sweet domesticity or a grab at publicity that stunt with a cell phone by?

The mayor of 9-11.

That’s the one.

Rudy.

Rudy Giuliani.

Absolutely.

He’s been answering calls.

Would you do that?

Would you answer the phone?

You’re running for president.

You’re in front of thousands, cameras, reporters, the whole bit.

And your wife calls and you love her.

You do?

Yeah, you do.

Do you answer the phone?

Absolutely.

You always answer the phone when your wife calls.

Oh, wait.

I’m sorry.

I have to take this.

Honey, are you listening?

Oh, yeah.

Excuse me, guys.

Yeah, I’ve got to take this.

Apparently, Rudy claims – he’s offered many explanations.

One is that since 9-11, they call each other before they get on planes, which sounds like just another way to use that for his political game.

He also apparently told some Bear Stearns executives, I’ve been married three times.

I can’t afford to lose another one.

Well, there’s no denying the man has spunk, no matter what you think of him politically.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So there you go.

That’s everything you need to know about 2007.

Wow.

So when are the hard ones?

Got some hard ones in there?

Next week.

Greg, you are indeed a star.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you.

It’s nice to sparkle at this gig.

And if you’re puzzling over a question about any aspect of language or have a limerick for us, call us.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

Or send us an email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Or start a conversation online with fellow word lovers in our new discussion forum.

Just go to waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Yes.

Hi.

Hi.

Who’s this?

Hello.

Hi, this is Heidi from Jamestown, Indiana.

Jamestown, Indiana?

Yes.

Where is Jamestown? Is that near Cementville?

Well, I couldn’t answer that, but I can tell you that it’s just a little bit west of Indianapolis.

Okay, so the other direction from Fort Wayne.

Yes.

I got you.

All right, well, welcome, Heidi.

Thank you.

What’s up?

Well, I’ve been so curious about a word.

I want to know if you could help me.

It’s the word do-rag.

Do-rag.

How are you spelling that?

Well, that’s interesting, too.

I would spell it, I guess, D-U-R-A-G, but I have seen it spelled D-E-W and also D-O-R-A-G.

So it depends, I guess, on what the underlying meaning of the word is as to how it’s spelled,

But I’ve seen it spelled all three ways.

Wow.

Now, in what places have you seen it spelled this way, and what are the contexts?

After I got curious about the word, I looked it up on the Internet,

And I had seen it spelled all three ways on the Internet.

But what had gotten me curious to begin with was my friend had mentioned her father was riding a motorcycle these days.

Well, he’s a 76-year-old man, and he sports a do-rag.

So I got to thinking about the word do-rag, and I started trying to look into it some more.

Well, now tell us what a do-rag is exactly, then.

A do-rag, from what I understand, is just a cloth covering that’s worn on the head.

Oh, like a bandana?

Yes, like a bandana. That’s what I understand it to be.

That’s where your skull and crossbones is, right?

Well, it would be a good place to put it.

No, but I do think of bikers, but I also think of a housewife

With just getting her hair done on the Wednesday,

And she wants to make it last until Sunday church,

So she wears a do-rag before she goes to sleep or when she does the chores, right?

Well, sure, I could see it meaning that.

In fact, when I started looking into this,

That was one of the meanings that came up,

Was if it was spelled with a D-O, people thought it was to protect a hairdo.

And the other meaning being D-E-W was that it meant sweat,

And it was a rag to keep the sweat out of your eyes.

Oh, that kind of do.

Yeah, it got confusing.

So I had gotten onto a motorcycle journal message board online,

And the debate was hot there.

They couldn’t come to any kind of conclusion as to what the true meaning of the word was.

Well, we can resolve this.

Well, I hope you can.

We can give you a definitive answer that shouldn’t be argued with

Because we’re the voice of God.

No, I used to think that it was D-E-W rag.

I really did.

And then I was set straight by my colleagues in the word trades

And the word professions.

And they’re like, no, dummy.

It’s not that at all.

It’s D-O.

It’s short for hairdo.

You know, you get your do.

And the thing is, it’s strange to think about a biker wearing a do-rag

If we’re talking about hairdos.

Because these guys are shaved bald.

They’re bikers.

It made no sense.

It might as well be a sun rag because they’re not protecting anything up there, right?

That’s what I thought, too.

But there’s a couple interesting side notes on this.

It is, inarguably, from hairdo.

There’s no argument about that, all right?

It’s concrete.

We know this.

The thing is, people do what’s called reanalysis.

They hear a word, and they try to figure out in their head, wait, what could that mean?

What could that have come from?

And they do like I did, and like some of the people that you’ve seen have done.

And they say, oh, that must be from the sweat on the brow, because it keeps the sweat out of your eyes.

But that’s actually not the origin of it.

It’s a perfectly fine explanation, I guess, but really it’s D-O hyphen R-A-G, despite the variant spellings that you might have seen.

But there’s a note here, which is some of the sources I’ve seen say that this particular word is largely African-American.

And while that may have been true originally in the 60s and 70s, I don’t think that’s been true for a really long time, at least 20 or 30 years.

I think this word has been widespread, appears throughout American culture in a lot of different ways.

It appears with housewives and bikers.

It appears on football fields as sports players.

It appears on college campuses.

It’s in every layer of our society.

But one interesting thing that was being said on the message board from the Motorcycle Journal

Was that the original wearers of the durag were the knights in shining armor.

They had to wear a cloth on their head to keep the sweat from their eyes.

So that they could see through their armor.

Oh, please.

Well, that’s hooey.

That’s hooey.

Oh, please.

These bikers were deep people.

Heidi, I wish you could see Grant’s do-rag right now.

Ha, ha, ha.

It’s very…

Because I’m half bald.

I look like a Trappist monk.

So he was speaking from experience, huh?

With the do-rags?

Yeah.

I don’t ride a couch rocket, though.

That’s the other word for it.

Maybe you need a don’t-rag.

Well, I ride a twin, so I guess I don’t even…

A twin?

That’s the kind of biker you are, huh?

You and your posse going robbing banks.

Hey, Heidi, thanks a lot for calling.

Well, thanks for answering my question.

It’s been very informative.

Take care.

Bye.

Thank you.

I swear, Grant, I never heard that word until very recently.

I would have said bandana, kerchief, something like that.

Yeah, it doesn’t often come up in Latin and Greek text, Martha.

Touche.

Anyway, if you have a question or comment about language, we want to hear it.

Give us a call at 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Jim, and I’m calling from Watkins Glen, New York.

Well, hello, Jim.

How are you doing today?

All right.

What are you doing in Watkins Glen?

I’m actually visiting my parents.

They have a nice house on Seneca Lake.

Oh, nice up there.

Yeah, that’s beautiful country up there.

Will you have a question for us today?

I do. Part of my job is writing technical papers. And I was writing a paper, and part of it was a description of benefit and risk.

And since they’re very nebulous words, I had put them in quotes. And the idea was, what do we mean when we say risk? Things of that nature.

And I had a question with punctuation. Normally, in dialogue, the punctuation is easy. It comes inside the quotes.

But when you’re talking about words and putting them in quotes, does the punctuation come inside the quotes or outside the quotes?

Great question, and I’m so glad you asked us that rather than the meaning of benefit and risk in general.

We could have been here all day.

That’s true.

We’re not going anywhere.

And there’s a very simple answer for this.

Oh, good.

I can feel simple.

Well, you can feel empowered.

That’s the way we like to think of it here on the show.

Excellent.

All right, here goes.

In American English, the period and the comma always go inside the quotation marks.

Always.

And the way I like to think of it is, I mean, Jim, think about that little tiny period.

It’s so little.

It doesn’t have any body fat whatsoever.

And, Jim, it’s a big cold page out there.

And so anytime you can put that little period inside the warm embrace of those quotation marks, do it.

That’s a very beautiful way to think about it.

Well, thank you. Thank you.

Now, I will give you a caveat, which is that if you go to England, they’re going to do it exactly the opposite.

But then these are the same people who drive on the wrong side of the road and like to drink their beer warm.

There’s no accounting for taste.

But Martha, I just want to clarify here.

You’re talking about the period and the comma, right?

Right.

The little tiny period and little tiny comma.

The stuff that sits on the baseline.

But sometimes the exclamation mark will go on the outside, right?

Well, it’s a lot bigger.

It’s a big buff exclamation mark.

And the same for semicolons.

Those would go outside the quotation marks because they’re bigger and they have more body fat.

So you’re actually providing what I usually use as my explanation, which is it looks better.

The big punctuation looks great inside the quotes, and the periods look weird outside the quotes.

Now, I don’t know about that, Grant.

I mean, Jim, as you just said, there’s no accounting for taste.

It’s about pretty.

Jim, any time you’re writing now, you’re going to put the period where?

I’m going to put the period inside the quotes along with the commas.

My columns and exclamation points I will leave outside the quotes.

You rock!

Well, Jim, thanks so much for calling.

Hey, I love your show.

Thank you very much for the help.

I truly appreciate it.

Okay.

Enjoy the lake, Jim.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

If you’ve got a question or comment about language or words or where to put the comma, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

And you can try our new email address.

It’s words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Titus from Northridge, California.

Titus.

Hello, Titus.

What a great name.

Thank you.

Yeah, I was just calling you guys to find out about, I’m a grip in the film business.

We had a discussion during our prep. I’m working on 24 this year, the television show.

Oh, you are?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

During our prep, we were all talking about a term that we use, G-job.

But what is a G-job on the set of Fox’s 24? What is it?

Yeah, it sounds kind of naughty.

It definitely has a derogatory term. It’s not just specific to this show.

So it seems to be kind of a job that people don’t want to do.

So you’re wondering if it’s like, you know, you say I have a G job for you and the person says, gee, I got to go home and wash my cat tonight.

Exactly. That’s usually, yeah, that’s kind of the, it’s derogatory.

So everybody kind of like averts their eyes.

You know, it’s funny that you should joke about that, Martha, because that’s the only way that I’ve ever heard of G job.

Really?

Yeah, it’s exactly that.

It’s the kind of job where you say to yourself, gee, I think I’ll do that.

It’s a little different, though.

It was used in the 90s in Silicon Valley to describe these little startups that were happening.

Somebody was saying, oh, I have the time and the money to do this little thing.

Gee, I think I’ll do that.

And they called that a G job.

But I’ve never really seen it used in a derogatory way at all.

This is a stumper.

I don’t really know.

I don’t know what a G job is.

The best I could come up with is that it was related to the technology term, the way it was used in Silicon Valley.

But I don’t think I’ve heard it.

We’ll have to throw this one out to the listeners.

Tough one, huh?

This is a puzzler.

This is great, though.

And in return, Titus, what’s going to happen on 24 this year?

I can’t divulge that.

I already signed non-confidentiality.

We did, too, about the term G-job.

We actually know what it is, but we signed a confidentiality agreement.

We can’t tell you.

Yeah, we’ll trade.

I guess we’ll just have to wait then.

Jack dies, doesn’t he?

I’ll have to wait you out.

Jack dies, doesn’t he?

Again.

Come on.

Oh.

I don’t have any tidbits.

Oh, darn.

You sound like an insider to me, but what do I know?

Well, listen, thanks for calling, Titus.

We’ll let you know if we find out anything.

Great, thanks.

All right, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

And if you have a question about language, give us a call.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673.

Or you can send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Get ready to test your knowledge of the latest slang.

Stay tuned.

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And it’s time for another round of Slang This.

Today’s contestant is Dee Dee Varner from San Diego.

Dee Dee, are you with us?

I sure am.

All right.

Say hello to Grant.

Hey, Grant.

Hello, Dee Dee.

How’s everything?

We’re very fine here in Claremont.

Very good.

I’m glad to hear it.

Right there in the middle of San Diego County, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, do you have a favorite slang expression to share with us?

I do.

It’s one that my family has sort of adopted.

And it started out in an entirely different context, but we have made it our own.

And it’s Slon Dune.

What?

Hello, what is that?

S-L-O-N-D-O-O-N.

A couple of years ago or less, my kids and I were looking at a forwarded email of pictures of signs from other countries that tried to do it in English.

The one that just cracked us up the most was Slon Dune, and it was a sign that said, Slow Down.

Its original translation is, slow down, toll booth ahead.

But it read, slon dune, tool bot ahead.

What country was it from?

I think an Asian country like maybe Thailand.

Wow.

So what do you guys use this for in your family?

Everything we want.

It’s like the all-purpose expletive or the all-purpose exclamation.

You can change it for excitement or the nastiness, the nasty mom.

And, in fact, one time I used it in a store when my kids were kind of, you know, wild like they are wont to be.

And I just said in a sharp voice, Slumdun.

And they just perked right into their little good-behaved selves.

I love it.

I love it.

That’s nice.

But the people around me were looking askance and trying to shuffle to a different aisle.

Hey, well, Didi, let’s see how much of a Slumdun you are guessing the meaning of other slang terms.

Yippee-yippee, let’s do it.

All right. Well, here’s how we play.

Grant’s going to give you a slang term, and then he’s going to present you with three possible examples of how it might be used.

And only one of those examples is real. The other two are bogus.

So, Deedee, your job will be to tell us which example is the real thing.

Three choices, one answer. You got it?

I got it.

Okay. And if you need a lifeline, I’m right here.

All right.

Grant, take it away.

All right, Deedee, today we’re going to have two slang expressions for you to guess, and each one will have three possible answers.

The first one is busting a sag or bust a sag.

That’s three words, B-U-S-T-I-N-G-A-S-A-G, busting a sag.

And the first contextual clue, we’ll call it, is although it’s a fashion that’s been around for 15 years.

And schools have tried to ban the wearing of pants so saggy that undershorts are on display.

Busting a sag still reigns among young black men across the country.

All right.

That’s the first one.

The second one.

Forget thread lifting and foot facials.

The latest cosmetic surgery technique is busting a sag.

Cosmetic surgeons use low-powered tasers to shock your wrinkly, flabby body into a firm suppleness.

Let me do the third clue.

Okay.

Trash men in Savannah, Georgia dread the first Wednesday of the month.

That’s discard day for big furniture like couches and sofas.

Busting a sag is what they call chopping the stuff up into smaller pieces so it will fit in the truck.

So which is the correct use of busting a sag?

Is it A, intentionally wearing your pants slung low so your boxer shorts are revealed?

B, a type of cosmetic surgery that uses taser guns?

Or C, the breaking up of large furniture to fit in a trash truck?

Goodness, goodness.

Well, for years I taught school at a local high school.

And I’ll tell you, I was saying just say no to crack to about every student that walked in my room.

I really like the first one.

So I think I’m going to pick that one.

Your logic is impeccable.

Your understanding of young Americans is fantastic, and you are exactly right.

Oh, hooray.

Busting a sag, or if you bust a sag, you’re wearing your britches down just below your buttocks so that your boxer shorts are up high.

There are only two slang terms today, so here’s the second one.

Pull the chute.

This is also a three-worder.

P-U-L-L-T-H-E-C-H-U-T-E.

Okay.

And here’s the first clue.

There are tons of reasons why candle making is fun.

The best one, to me, is when you pull the chute on the candle mold and all these perfectly formed waxy shapes roll out.

The second one.

Some football players will play injured, and some will just pull a shoot, acting more injured than they are.

It’s hard for a coach to tell which is which and know whom to pull from the game.

And the third one.

Our startup was fully funded by venture capitalists, but then they pulled the shoot and brought the whole thing to a halt.

We’re closing the business next week.

So, which of the three is the correct use of pull the shoot?

Is it A, to break open a candle mold?

Is it B, to fake a football injury or to act more injured than you are?

Or is it C, to kill a startup company by withdrawing an investment?

I’m going to say C because the first two just don’t seem plausible.

I’ve seen them make candles, and they don’t really roll out in the factories I’ve looked at.

No, you take factory tours of candle-making places?

Well, you know, if you travel a little bit, you end up at a candle factory sometime in your life.

Yeah, you know, that happens to all of us. What a moment that is.

I’m waiting for my candle factory days.

But I like the third one. It seems kind of apropos to our economics of the times.

So I’m going to do the third one.

Oh, yeah? All the drama going on. Surely there must be some funny language connected to that, right?

Yeah.

Are you sure?

Well, maybe I’m not sure.

Oh, okay.

Now, what was the second one again?

The second one was to fake a football injury or to act more injured than you are.

Do you ever watch drag racing on television?

Yeah.

You know, the ones where they have these really funky-shaped cars.

And they’ve got these parachutes that come out.

Right, and then they slow down with the chute coming out at the end of the race.

Right, they stop with the parachute. They’re done.

Well, so then that… Man, let’s see here.

Can I just tell you, Dee Dee?

I guess you better.

It is the second one. It’s the football players.

And the logic there is that they’re pulling the chute early, not just that they’re pulling the chute.

They’re pulling the chute early in order to just give up before they even have to bother to really put in the effort to win.

Or put in the effort out there on the field to do what it takes.

Okay. Well, you know, I have learned a considerable amount with that phrase now.

Dee Dee, thank you so much for playing today. This was great fun.

Thanks for having me.

Slum Doon!

Slum Doon!

Well, Dee Dee, as a way of saying thanks, we’re going to send you a copy of Grant’s book.

It’s called the Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang.

Ooh, that’s great.

I’ve been wanting one of those.

And listeners, if you’d like to join our quiz on the air, the number to call is 1-877-929-WORD.

Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Be sure to include all your phone numbers and your favorite slang word.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Bill from Carlsbad.

Hi, Bill. How are you doing?

I’m doing very well. How about yourself?

Super. What’s on your mind today?

Well, I’m looking to find out if there is a word for a child in charge.

And let me, if I can explain it real quickly.

Wow.

If a man is in charge of a society, it’s patriarchal, woman, matriarchal.

And is there a word for child in charge?

Wow.

So how are those nine kids, Bill?

Sorry?

How are your nine kids?

I have five. I have five children.

Oh, five.

Oh, my gosh.

See, I grew up in a household of five, but my father and mother, they kept a strong hand.

It was not run by children when I grew up.

Well, my question has been generated from observation.

I teach with the juvenile court and community schools in San Diego.

And I also am an associate professor of special education for a national university.

And I would watch children in their developing, I should say, technologically at a much higher rate.

And then I would go to my night job, and in no way am I trying to be offensive to any of my graduate students.

But they would be a little bit less adventurous with the technology.

They’d be a little bit reluctant to try new stuff, and the kids are jumping on.

But you’re saying basically that the kids, because they’re so willing to adapt and take on new things, that they may very well be in charge of people who are older and more educated.

I’m thinking of a comic that I saw on the Los Angeles Times one time.

And the teacher is being handed software to install to prevent the children from getting things they shouldn’t get, I guess, on the Internet.

And she in turn hands it to a child and says, here, Johnny, install this.

Sure, by the way.

That’s good.

That mindset, there’s all sorts of examples of this.

Right.

So those of us who don’t have kids, we all have DVDs that are flashing 12, 12.

Martha, you’re dying.

I can hear it in your voice.

You’re dying.

You’ve got an answer over there, right?

How did you know?

Because there’s like this tend you get in your voice, and I know.

Well, Bill, here’s what’s really weird.

I hadn’t thought about this ever, but the fact is that in ancient Greek, one of the words for child is technon.

Technon.

Yeah.

Let me write this down.

T-E-C?

Well, it’s spelled, of course, with Greek letters, but when it’s transliterated into English, the prefix is T-E-C-N-O.

T-E-C-N-O.

Bill, if you look in some dictionaries under T-E-C-N-O.

T-E-C-N-O, okay.

It’s the beginning of a lot of words, including the word technology, T-E-C-N-O-L-O-G-Y.

Okay.

But that’s the scientific study of children.

Indeed.

Isn’t that weird?

I don’t see any kind of technarchy, but I think that’s what we’re talking about is technarchy.

Or technarchy.

I like that.

But wow.

Well, I think that you’ve pointed out a hole in our language, and we need help from our listeners.

Well, and I hope that we get it.

And it’s just great to talk to you.

And I’m going to look up a little thing on techno and pedo and see what we can come up with.

Yeah, check that out and have your whole technologically savvy family go online to our new discussion forum.

That’s at waywordradio.org.

And give us a suggestion for what this word should be.

I would love to do that.

And it’s been an honor talking to you both.

Great talking to you, Bill.

Thank you so much, sir.

Thanks so much.

Have a good rest of the day.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Martha, I don’t know why we couldn’t use paderical technocracy.

Because then we’d be fighting over whether it’s peed or ped, you know?

Peed?

Oh, I’m spelling the British way, P-A-E-D.

Oh, you would, yeah.

I don’t know. You call me a big anglophile poser is what you’re calling me. I hear it in your voice.

That’s the other thing I hear in your voice.

If you’ve got a question about words or language, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673,

Or write to us, words, at waywordradio.org, and you can leave a comment on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org.

If you’re technologically savvy.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Tom from Dayton, New Jersey.

Hello, Tom. What’s going on?

Not too much. I’m calling because of a friendly argument that I had with a friend of mine concerning a phrase that she used.

Well, the first time I heard it was probably about 13, 14 years ago.

I was leaving a concert with a date, and she exclaimed, that was very fun.

And I kind of did a twitch, you know. It didn’t sound right.

The combination of very and fun.

So I didn’t say anything.

The relationship was blossoming.

So I got together with some friends from Michigan

At another friend’s birthday party out in Ohio,

And she was describing some of the activities that she’d been into,

And she said, and it was very fun.

And at this point in time, I didn’t hold back.

So that old scab came off the wound and started to…

Exactly right.

All that pent-up emotion, you know, the emotional scar was being vented.

So I said, you can’t say that.

And she said, can’t say what?

I said, you can’t modify fun with very.

And she said, well, why not?

Of course, I hate that question because basically I don’t know why.

I mean, it’s a gut feeling.

It doesn’t sound right.

And I understand what they’re saying.

Is it because they’re using it in such a trite way?

Well, no, it could be very little fun or it could be very great fun.

And it’s a shorthand.

And I understand that whatever they did was pretty much high on the funometer, you know.

So it seems that it should be very much fun or, you know, very great fun or very little fun.

I can’t see very and fun going together.

I see very funny, but that means something completely different.

Exactly, Tom.

I know exactly what you’re talking about here.

We were taught that fun was a noun.

But you know what happened in the 1950s and the 1960s?

Fun took off as an adjective.

And so people like Grant probably don’t mind saying things like, oh, that was so fun.

Or, Tom, you’re the funnest caller we ever had.

Would you be down with that, Grant?

I wouldn’t say it like a dork, but, yeah, I would say that.

Well, you know, when you guys go back to your sticks in the mud class reunion or whatever it is that you learned this stuff, just remember that some of us are keeping up and some of us aren’t.

Well, Tom, I tell you what, fun actually is a very interesting word in that it’s what we call a noun of emotion.

I mean, think about it.

I could say, Tom, it’s a pleasure talking with you.

It’s been pleasant talking with you.

But I can’t say it’s been a fun talking with you or I can’t say it’s been funny talking to you because funny, the adjective there doesn’t really work.

You see, as something coming out of fun, it’s kind of a different idea.

My point here is that I think that younger folks like Grant have sort of keyed in on another hole in the language.

I mean, we sort of do need to find some other way to say that was a blast.

You know, I was thinking about this.

Should I really, really let something like this make me twitch?

Because, you know, the language kind of changes over time, of course.

And it’s just, you know, when youngsters like Grant use the thing,

I just have to remember that they’re of a different generation.

Right, they’re still green.

And, you know, I just kind of have to swallow it, which, you know,

As Janet, my Brit girlfriend, would say,

Take a stiff upper lip with this thing, buddy.

There’s one last point I think that needs to be made here, which is kind of a little more serious.

But as somebody who tries to be careful about his language, though God knows I make enough mistakes on the air,

I’m aware of the fact that some people have a problem with fun as an adjective,

And I try not to use it in those situations where it might make me look bad.

And that’s one thing.

That’s about a lot of language kind of falls in that category.

There are things that you can say, and there are things that you should say,

And there are things that you shouldn’t say.

And the three, somewhere in the three, you just got to remember to address your audience properly.

So, Tom, when Grant is talking to old fogies like us, he’s going to control his…

No, if you’re coming out of a Doobie Brothers concert in the 1970s and you want to say that something was very fun, that’s fine.

Well, it was Simon and Garfunkel, but I understand where you’re coming from.

Well, hey, Tom, this has been a lot of fun.

I just want to say thank you for the great, fun radio show.

Thanks, Tom.

Thank you, Tom.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Okay, Grant. So I think the bottom line here is that very fun is a casualism. Maybe we wouldn’t use it in formal writing, but we do need to find a way to have more fun and describe it, no?

I think that what’s going to happen is that fun as an adjective is going to be perfectly acceptable within 30 years or so.

So if I want the grammatical equivalent of a facelift, I should start using it right now.

Yeah, you could do that. It could just say chalax all the time.

That sounds like fun.

Well, if you want to have some fun with us on the air, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us at words@waywordradio.org.

Hey, Grant, I have one more A Way with Words anagram for you.

All right, let’s hear it.

How about anagramming A Way with Words to a ward showy wit?

How about anagramming waywordradio.org to I draw a good worry or I row a good dry war?

Of course you do.

Well, we’re about at our showy wits end, and maybe you are too.

But hey, you can always continue the conversation online in our new A Way with Words discussion forum.

Just head on over to waywordradio.org.

You’ll also find podcasts of previous episodes there.

If you’d like to chat with us in real time, call us.

Our number is 1-877-929-9673, or send us an email, words@waywordradio.org.

Our senior producer is Stefanie Levine.

A Way with Words is directed and edited by Tim Felten.

Our production assistant is Robert Fung.

A Way with Words is produced at Studio West in San Diego, California.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette, inviting you to join us for another all-new episode.

Next time on A Tawdry Wish.

Ow!

Oops, I’m still in anagram mode there.

Let’s try that again.

Please join us next time on A Way with Words.

You like potato and I like potato.

You like tomato and I like tomato.

Potato, potato, tomato, tomato.

Let’s call the whole thing off.

But oh, if we call the whole thing off, then we must part.

And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heart.