As a kid, you may have played that game where you phone someone to say, “Is your refrigerator running? Then you better go catch it!” What’s the term for that kind of practical joke? Is it a crank call or a prank call? There’s...
What’s the best way for someone busy to learn lots of new words quickly for a test like the GRE? Looking up their origins can help. Or, record yourself reading the words and definitions and play them back while you’re doing other chores...
For a luscious description of exactly what you will see during a total solar eclipse, check out Dan McGlaun’s site, Eclipse 2017. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Luscious Eclipse Description” We were talking...
After our conversation about a verbose admonition to use short words, a Tallahassee, Florida, man called with a version he learned as a boy: Do you have the audacity to doubt my veracity? Or even to insinuate that I would prevaricate? While...
A listener in Bonifay, Florida, says when she was young and asked her mother what she was doing, her mother would respond “I’m stacking greased bb’s with boxing gloves on.” This nonsensical phrase is part of a long tradition...
Our conversation about goofy German antiwitze prompts listeners to send in their own silly jokes. For example: What’s the difference between a duck? A pencil, because a duck has no sleeves! This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...

