In our earlier conversation about the term clam, which musicians use to refer to a “missed note” or “musical mistake,” Martha misspoke and said a similar term was used in rowing and sculling. Actually, as many listeners...
When an international team of scientists traveled to a research station in Antarctica for six months, the language they all shared was English. After six months together, their accents changed ever so slightly — a miniature version of how language...
Ian in Jacksonville, Florida, wonders about why musicians use the word clam to mean “a mistake” or “an egregious musical error,” as in There are a lot of clams in there or We need to practice where the clams are regarding a...