Did you know reading poetry improves your prose? That includes hip-hop lyrics, too. Also, how linguist can guess where you come from based on how you speak. What do you call someone who picks the chocolate out of the trail mix...
kettle v.—Gloss: To surround and contain protesters. Note: Also a noun. «When you’ve been kettled once, there’s no excuse for failing to notice police lines forming around you the next time you’re on a demo – and moving before...
Where in the world would you be likely to find sculch in your dooryard, or ask for just a dite of cream in your coffee? Martha has the answers in this minicast about some distinctive regional terms.
A listener in Brazil challenges Martha’s pronunciation of the odd English word antipodes. Their email exchange leads Martha to muse about a favorite collection of poems, where she first encountered this word.
tramp dread n.— «My excuse is that, as a freelance journalist, I do not receive any paid holiday. If I stop working, the money stops coming in—and my finances are so precariously balanced that simply forgoing one week’s wages could bring...
next year country n.— «Over the last 15 years, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have often gathered to clean out their lockers at the end of another CFL season knowing they faced a winter of excuses. In a place farmers often refer to as...