Why do people say They don’t geehaw to mean “They don’t get along”? Geehaw, occasionally spelled jeehaw, comes from the calls people use to drive a team of animals, such as oxen, mules, horses, or sled dogs, gee being an order to turn right and haw...
If you’re serious about writing a memoir, what topics should you include, and what can you leave out? And how honest can you really be about the other people in your life? Some of America’s leading memoirists wrote things they lived to regret. And:...
When it comes to the act of writing, E.L. Doctorow once said, it’s “like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “E.L. Doctorow...
“If you come to a fork in the road… take it!” Baseball legend Yogi Berra was famous for such head-scratching observations. What most people don’t realize, though, is that the former Yankees star often wasn’t the first person to say them. As Berra...
You know that moment when you get into the car and check your phone before driving off? One listener calls that her media moment. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Media Moment” We talked a few weeks ago about that moment when you...
First names like “Patience,” “Hope,” and “Charity” are inspired by worthy qualities. But how about “Be-courteous” or “Hate-evil”? The Puritans sometimes gave children such names hoping that their kids would live up to them. Also, even some feminists...
