John from Richmond, Virginia, remembers a Yorktown high-school clique called grits: metal kids in jean jackets with Ronnie James Dio patches, leather boots, and a taste for the smoking area. Similar crowds have been called Hessians, heshes, heshers...
In the novel Jane Eyre, characters sometimes speak whole sentences in French. A high school English teacher says her students wonder if there’s a term for inserting whole sentences from another language into fiction. Grant talks about the use...
Ahoy! We kicked off the new fall season of "A Way with Words" this weekend, asking, "How much humor and personality can you pack into a 140-character update? A lot, it seems. We discuss funny Twitter feeds, the origins of...
This week, it’s backhanded phrases, those snarky remarks that come sugar-coated in politeness, like “How nice for you,” “Oh, interesting!,” and the mother of all thinly veiled criticism, “Bless her heart.”...
Grant shares some odd high school team mascot names, including the Wooden Shoes and the Battling Bathers. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “High School Mascot Names” Here’s some emails about school mascots. If...
Grant and Martha discuss strange names for high school sports teams. Know another example? Talk about it in the forum. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Strange Mascot Names” You’re listening to A Way with Words...
