Jonathan in Fall River, Wisconsin, says when he worked in Zambia he met many people named Bornface, supposedly because they were born face-up. In The African Book of Names, Ashkari Johnson Hodari explains that it’s common throughout sub-Saharan...
What’s the best term for an ex-wife’s new husband? A caller in Chico, California, is friendly with both his ex-wife and her new love, and wonders if there’s a more civil term than floozy. Other options: the second shift, and Tupperware, since that...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game where you have to guess what three clues—like Bob, Tom, and Allie or bulb, silver, and month—have in common. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Commonalities Quiz” You’re listening to A Way with...
Certain baby names come with the perpetual problem of being easily confused, like Todd and Scott. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Name Confusion Scott/Todd” Grant, we were talking earlier in the show about names. Names. Giving...
Patience, Hope, and Charity are pretty ambitious things to name your children. But what about Hate-evil, Be-courteous, or Search-the-scriptures? Or Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith? Puritan parents sometimes gave their kids so as to encourage those...
“Order in the court, the monkey wants to speak, the first one to speak is a monkey for a week!” This children’s rhyme appears in print in the 1950s, and Israel Kaplan mentions it in When I Was a Boy in Brooklyn, his take on growing up in New York in...