Adam in Indianapolis grew up with his grandmother’s warning not to split a pole, meaning that two companions shouldn’t pass on opposite sides of a lamppost, mailbox, or other street obstacle. The idea is that the physical separation hints at an...
A man in Huntington Beach, California, ponders his teenager’s frequent use of the words fail and epic fail. Grant explains what this has to do with semantic bleaching, and discusses some funny fails on failblog.org. This is part of a complete...
Grant shares online sites that can help you solve a difficult crossword puzzle or anagram words to help you get the highest scores in Scrabble. WordNavigator and Wordsmith.org’s anagram server. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
cap-and-traitor n.— «Could somebody please explain the difference between people on the Right calling the eight GOP congressmen who voted for the Obama-Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade anti-global warming energy bill “cap and traitors” and the far...
schoobrary n.— «You may recall that when the idea of placing a school in a planned downtown library (an idea we’ve taken to calling a schoobrary) surfaced late last year, concerns arose about the increased construction costs that would result since...
two-centimetre n.— «“You don’t come here in a two-centimetre (slang for a micro-mini).”…It was here on Sunday that taxi drivers and hawkers joined forces to teach one young woman “a lesson.” Nwabisa Ngcukana, 25, was stripped, sexually assaulted...