How do you pronounce the word mobile, as in the toy that hangs above a baby’s crib? In the United States, that kind of mobile is pronounced MOH-beel, but in the United Kingdom, it’s MOH-byle. In the early 1930s, the American sculptor Alexander...
A mobile-phoney, as defined by the Irish rail system’s new ad campaign, is someone on a train who pretends to be having a phone conversation in order to prevent fellow passengers from taking the seat next to them. This is part of a complete...
Remember when teenagers used to sit by the phone, waiting for it to ring? Now ask teenagers if they do anything but text. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Texting vs. Calling” You’re listening to A Way with Words...
A new study finds that 20-somethings think it’s okay to text and read emails during meetings, and men are more likely than women to approve. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Phone Etiquette in Meetings”...
Mad money is the emergency cash a woman tucked away to get home safely if an evening out went badly. These days, it’s largely been replaced by cell phones. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Mad Money” Hello, you...
Do you say terms like NBD, LOL, or BRB aloud in everyday speech? It sounds strange to hear spoken text lingo, but with all language, it’s only weird until it becomes the norm, and then we wonder how we did without it. That said, most of these...