Barack Obama wants to put people to work building roads and bridges. But how about a federal jobs program for out-of-work writers? Also: why do we call it a flight of wine? How did the haircut called a mullet get its name?
In an earlier episode, Martha explained the origin of the expression to boot, meaning “in addition” or “besides.” That prompted an email from a listener wanting to know why we speak of booting a computer. Grant has the answer...
In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase “all over it like a duck on a junebug,” which refers to doing something with great eagerness. Martha shares an email from a Wisconsin listener who’s watched plenty of ducks...
It’s a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it who or whom? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague’s email signature, but he’s not sure it’s 100% grammatical. The sentence:...
If you’re facing a Hobson’s choice, you don’t really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what’s offered, or else take nothing at all. Martha offers some choice...
Thunder and lightning! It's another email newsletter from "A Way with Words," where we put the "recess" in "recession." In our latest broadcast we talked about "fankle," baby platypuses (as they say at...