Hey kid, hey kid, give ’em the saliva toss, the perspiration pellet, the damp fling, deluded dip, the good ol’ fashioned spitball! An essay on baseball slang from 1907 sent Martha off on a search for more of these wet ones. This is part...
This awards season, many winners will say, “I’m humbled by this honor.” Ann from Burlington, Vermont, wonders: Shouldn’t they feel honored rather than humbled? What’s so humbling about winning awards? Grant argues that...
Do you have a favorite word? Martha’s is mellifluous, which means pleasing to the ear, but goes back to the idea of flowing with honey. If you have a favorite word, take a picture of yourself holding it up and send it in to our Word Wall! This...
Martha spotted a choice cartoon: A dog is sitting behind a gate under a sign that says Beware of Dog. The caption: “Can I read you my poems?” This is part of a complete episode.
A while back we talked about what English sounds like to those who don’t speak it. Martha shares an evocative excerpt from Richard Rodriguez’s memoir Hunger of Memory, where he describes the “high nasal notes of middle-class...
Martha shares a favorite poem, “The Bagel,” by David Ignatow. Who wouldn’t like to feel “strangely happy with myself”? This and other gems can be found in Billy Collins’ book Poetry 180. This is part of a complete...