In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, “Go humans go,” or Coca-Cola’s current slogan, “Open happiness.” Martha and Grant discuss whether...
Office 2.0 n.— «Savvy office workers frustrated that their on-the-job computer tools don’t function as smoothly as, say, an Apple iPod are taking matters into their own hands. No longer are they relying on company technicians, or...
Welcome to another newsletter from "A Way with Words," where the hosts are the English teachers you wish you had in grade school. No tardies ever! Let's start with the minicasts this week. Special on sale just for you! Bargain at the...
weisure n.— «The line dividing work and leisure time is blurring right before our eyes, says one expert, and it’s creating a phenomenon called “weisure time.” Many who haven’t already abandoned the 9-to-5 workday for the...
Oh, that gives me agita! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she’s known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for “upset” and its likely...
walk-a-cise n.— «Confusion ensues, slowing down the furious bikers and dragging into the mix City Hall-area office workers who are just trying to get in a little lunch break walk-a-cise but are now risking loss of limb.» —“The Wild...