If you get an email called “Life in the 1500s,” hit delete! Grant explains that the etymology provided is not entirely accurate. That’s what this show is for. Also, if you’re getting an email that says “Free Money...
Some of the world’s greatest writers had to do their work while holding down a day job. William Faulkner and Anthony Trollope toiled as postal clerks. Zora Neal Hurston trained as an anthropologist. Vladimir Nabokov was a lepidopterist who...
This week’s word puzzle from Quiz Guy Greg Pliska involves taking a word, adding an “i” to the beginning, as if creating an Apple product, to get an entirely new word. For instance: “This is how Steve Jobs begins a card game...
wrinkling n.— Note: “Wrinkle,” spelled with an R, is a regional name for the periwinkle. «Jobs like “wrinkling”—the local term for heading out into the intertidal zone at low tide and gathering periwinkles for sale...
cash for clunkers n.— «He also said he supported proposals that provided “generous” tax credits to owners who turn in older models for fuel-efficient new cars. Such programs are dubbed “cash for clunkers...
redheaded Eskimo n.— «On Capitol Hill, legislation carefully tailored to the needs of a tiny constituency is sometimes called a “Redheaded Eskimo.” He is in the Jobs Creation Act under “expenses paid by certain whaling...