Hey, hey, hey! It's another fat newsletter from "A Way with Words"! We never run out of things to talk about. Take this past weekend's show, for example. We tracked down the history of "Polly wanna cracker." It turns out...
graveyard month n.— «February and March are known in the retail industry as the “graveyard months,” the time when wealthy owners find themselves some sunshine on an expensive cruise liner waiting for the spring recovery...
go grassy knoll on someone v. phr.— Note: To indulge in talk or thoughts of a possible conspiracy. «It’s probably nothing, and God knows I don’t want to go all grassy knoll on you. Just passing along the latest rumors.» —“Paranoia...
trip n.— «In the parlance of the electric power industry, a “trip” means a piece of machinery stops operating. A series of feedwater system pumps supplying water to TMI-2’s steam generators tripped on the morning of March 28...
Unless you’ve been hiding out in a galaxy far, far away, you know that this is an election year. Grant and Martha talk about current political slang. Ever hear of glass pockets? Or horseracism? Is there an etymological connection between...
You’ve just read a terrific paperback novel. Would you feel any differently about it if you’d the same words on the glowing screen of an electronic book? Martha and Grant discuss the social and psychological implications of books that...