Mary Gordon in Austin, Texas, shares a delightful story about her elderly father and a handful of vegetables, which raises the question: what’s the plural of squash? Squashes? Or squash? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Science historian Cecelia Watson’s splendid new book Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark is her long love letter to an underappreciated punctuation mark. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Now that he’s reached mid-life, Jeff in San Diego, California, is eager to start writing fiction, but he worries that creative writing classes may be simply self-indulgent or otherwise unhelpful. He shouldn’t be. Across the nation, older...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s brain-buster involves changing the meaning of proverb by anagramming one of its words. For example, John says his friend owned a string of pottery franchises, but it all came to nothing when one of the ovens fell...
Paloma from Escondido, California, asks about how the hosts developed their attitudes toward language. We share some of those influences, which include, in Martha’s case, studying Ancient Greek for 12 years with a polyglot professor, and in...
Many so-called “rules” of grammar are actually just zombie rules. They’re ill-advised attempts by 17th-century grammarians to make English syntax fit the orderly rules of Latin. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...