It’s another newsletter from “A Way with Words.” Woot! In last weekend’s episode: Is it wrong to type two spaces after a period? We arm-wrestle over that, and talk about the odd language in “True Grit.” Also...
Hi! In the latest episode of “A Way with Words,” it’s the day jobs of famous writers. We also discuss Eskimo kisses, the Puerto Rican treat called a “limber,” how “fail” became a noun, “I’m...
In Philadelphia, the expression the big mahoff, means “a bigshot,” as in “Who do you think you are, the big mahoff?” But just what is a mahoff? This is part of a complete episode.
It’s a brand-new season of A Way with Words! Grant has big news, too: He’s used up his last Metrocard, packed up his belongings, and moved to the Left Coast. He reports on some features of California language there that are already...
A Philadelphia listener has a Yiddish twist on an old palindrome: “Unable I was ere I saw Elba, nu?” This is part of a complete episode.
zap n.— «Following the 1969 Stonewall riots, as the nascent gay rights movement became increasingly combative, a gay Philadelphia teenager initiated his own guerrilla war aimed at television, including the CBS Evening News. Mark Segal...