Martha shares a quip that’s all too true: “I don’t find it hard to meet expenses. They’re everywhere!” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Meeting Expenses” Grant, I came across a great quotation the other day. I’m not sure who the...
You know those words whose meanings never seem to stick in your mind, no matter how many times you flip back to the dictionary? Martha wrestles with the term atavistic, meaning “the tendency to revert to ancestral characteristics.” She now remembers...
A listener shares a phrase he learned in Peru that translates as “more lost than a hard-boiled egg in ceviche.” It describes someone who’s lost or clueless. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hard-Boiled Egg in Ceviche” Sean O’Connor...
In an earlier episode, we discussed linguistic false friends, those words in foreign languages that look like familiar English words, but mean something quite different. Martha reads an email response from a listener who learned the hard way that in...
A die-hard fan of television’s Mad Men is puzzled when Don calls Betty a “Main Line brat.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Main Line Brat” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, my name’s Lisa and I’m from Groton, Connecticut...
A die-hard Tyler Perry fan is curious about an emphatic expression she’s heard in some of his movies: Hell-to-the-no. What’s up with the extra words? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hell-to-the-No” Hello, you have A Way with Words...