Liam from San Francisco, California, is wondering about woo-woo. How did this term come to be an adjective describing beliefs or practices considered unscientific or irrational? Woo-woo likely imitates otherworldly sounds or ghostly moans. This is...
Martha shares a funny story about her five-year-old great-niece, who misunderstood the name of her adopted home state, California. Then again, Unicornia does have a nice ring to it. This is part of a complete episode.
Aaron in Los Angeles, California, notes while using public transit in Britain he and other passengers were instructed to alight from the front, meaning βexit the car from the front.β Alight comes from an Old English word alihtan, literally, to...
While reading Dean Koontz’s book The House at the End of the World (Bookshop|Amazon), a listener in Ramona, California, encountered the perfect word for the walks he takes with his dog. He now refers to such an excursion as a sniffari. This is...
A Los Angeles, California, listener shares the following pangram, a succinct but understandable statement that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: A quick fox jumps high / Vexing birds, zigzag winds fly / Haikus trap words, why? This is part of...
When she was a child, Chris from Santa Rosa, California, misunderstood the definition of the word vehicle—with amusing results. This is part of a complete episode.

