O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! A listener senses something awfully good about oxymorons, from the Greek for “pointedly foolish.” Grant shares this favorite example from Shakespeare’s Romeo...
Grant shares a word he’s been encountering at conferences: discussant. A discussant is someone who, after a series of papers are presented, takes the microphone to summarize the information given and offer opinions on the matter. This is part...
Need a Scrabble word with q or z? Grant shares some of his favorite legal Scrabble words: qi (the circulating life force in Chinese philosophy), qat (a leaf chewed in some cultures for stimulating effects), and za (a shortening of the word...
A fifth-year senior? That term is so 2007. These days, college students just refer to that extra year of school as taking a victory lap. Grant shares this and other examples of campus slang collected by University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill...
Grant shares a bit of military humor related to cumshaw, the art of procuring what you need in ingenious ways: “There is only one thief in the army. Everyone else is just trying to get their stuff back.” This is part of a complete...
Grant shares Tom Swifties sent in by listeners: “Aw, shucks, I dropped the toothpaste,” Tom said crestfallenly, and “I’ve located the experts,” Tom said profoundly. This is part of a complete episode.