Salon magazine writer Andi Zeisler likens the em-dash to black licorice: ”Those who like it love it; those who don’t will loudly and repeatedly let you know.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The Black Licorice of Punctuation” You...
As we’ve noted, in California’s Orange County, to birdie means “to drink from a bottle without touching it with one’s lips.” Elsewhere this germ-avoidant act is also called airsipping, airing, baby birding. In parts of the UK, you might sky a drink...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s puzzle is all about substituting the letter B for a certain letter that falls between the letters O and Q. For example, if you’re substituting the letter B for that particular letter, what would you call the skill that some...
In a previous episode, five-year-old Quinn asked why the letter Q is so often followed by the letter U. A new children’s book seems to have been written just for her. Q and U Call It Quits is a funny story about the chaos that ensues for the rest of...
A high-schooler in Indianapolis, Indiana, wonders why the word number is abbreviated as no. when there’s no letter O in the word. The answer lies in the Latin word numero, which is the ablative form of the Latin word for number, numerus. This is...
Psychological research shows that when it comes to letters of the alphabet, people tend to like their own initials, perhaps because of a sense of ownership. This phenomenon is called the name-letter effect. This is part of a complete episode...
