Why do we say that someone who’s especially fortunate is endowed with the luck of the Irish? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The So-Called Luck of the Irish” Hi there. You have A Way with Words. Hey, Martha. This...
English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton is best remembered for the first line of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford (Bookshop|Amazon). The novel opens with “It was a dark and stormy night …” followed by many twists and turns in a long...
When writing his doctoral dissertation, John in Bardstown, Kentucky, used an upside-down question mark after a comment to indicate he was being sarcastic. Is there a punctuation mark that serves this function? Over the centuries, several have been...
Rasoul from Mashad, Iran, writes to ask why in English the phrase fat chance actually means “little or no chance” — a slim chance, in other words. Fat chance is an ironic usage, much like the phrase big deal which is often used to mean...
The most common plural form of mouse—as in, a computer mouse—is mice. But since the mouse was introduced in the 1960’s, tech insiders have applied their own sense of humor and irony to the usage of mice. This is part of a complete episode...
We all know that gesture people do, sometimes ironically, where you wipe or smack your hands together to signify that a job’s done. There’s no common term for it, but a Schenectady, New York, listener has a great suggestion: all-done...