Giving your baby an unusual moniker may seem like a great idea at the time. But what if you have second thoughts? One mother of a newborn had such bad namer’s remorse, she poured out her heart to strangers online. Speaking of mothers and...
We’ve talked before about the term wasband, as in, ex-husband. A caller suggests another good term for that fellow: penultimate husband. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Penultimate Husband” Grant, remember when...
The SAT is changing things up, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just because words like membranous are no longer in the verbal section doesn’t mean kids aren’t learning important vocabulary. And speaking of useful terms...
There’s a small lexical gap left when looking for kinder ways to name former spouses. Kahani of Arcata, California, coined wasband after her 1975 divorce because ex-husband sounded too harsh, as if the person had been struck from a list. The blend...
There are doobies, and then there are good doobees. A caller from Traverse City, Michigan, says her husband refers to himself as a good doobee whenever he’d clean the house or pay the bills. The phrase goes back to Romper Room, a...
Do you use paper towels or paper towelling? While a listener insists her husband’s wrong for his use of paper towelling, Grant explains how certain nouns take a gerund ending. For example, clothes derive from clothing, and the side of a house...