It’s been a while since Moon Unit Zappa and the Valley Girl craze slipped out of the popular eye, which is likely why the sarcastic quip, “I’m so sure!” had one listener tripped up. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Valley Girl...
The medical term for that grainy stuff that collects in the corner of your eyes when you sleep is rheum, but why call it that when you could call it sleepy sand or eye boogers? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sleepy Sand” Hello...
What do you call a guy with a bald pate? A chrome dome? Maybe the lucky fellow is sporting a solar panel for a sex machine. Also, which would you rather open: a can of worms or Pandora’s box? Plus, ordinary vs. ornery, versing vs. versus, dishwater...
Editors are great for picking up those double the’s and similar mistakes, known as eye-skip errors. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Eyeskip Errors” You know when you’re editing and you think you’re done and you have somebody else...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a magical puzzle, the answers to which contain the word magic. For example, a motel sign in the ’70s might have included the enticement Magic Fingers, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a practitioner of literature featuring...
A question from a listener on the A Way with Words Facebook page has Martha musing about the entomological and etymological connections between the word pupil and the pupal stage of an insect’s life.