We asked you to tell us about odd regional food names, and boy did you oblige! Martha reads some of your letters about whoopie pies, hot tamales, pretzel salad, coolers, and the frappe vs. milkshake controversy.
Pat, a fisherman in San Diego, hears mariners use snotty weather for rough offshore conditions, such as large swells, whitecaps, and wind above 10 or 15 knots. The phrase does not seem to mean cold weather that brings sniffles. Examples go back at...
A San Diego woman is bothered by the convention of addressing envelopes to Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Shouldn’t we also include the woman’s first name?
A San Diego caller says he’s noticed that his high-school grandson and his buddies habitually refer to each other only by their last names, but his granddaughter says she and her own friends never do. Is this just a teenage guy thing? The book...
A San Diego woman who’s homeschooling her children wonders if there’s a formula that explains why nouns like teacher and writer end in “er,” while others, like professor and conductor, end in “or.” She suspects it...
A San Diego listener has a weird word on her mind: biffy (meaning “toilet”). This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Biffy for Toilets, Outhouses, and Porta-Potties” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Megan...