Heather Coffman sent us a tweet about a helpful way to end a long phone conversation: I’ll let you go so you can glue your ears and legs back on. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “I’ll Let You Go” Heather...
Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving...
Novelist Charles Dickens created many unforgettable characters, but he’s also responsible for coining or popularizing lots of words, like “flummox” and “butterfingers.” Also, the life’s work of slang lexicographer...
Chad in Omaha, Nebraska, noticed that his mother ended every phone call with mmm-bye, a form he never heard her use in person. The closing may be simply bye with the initial m sound held a little longer before the lips release for the b, not a...
A customer-service representative from Seattle, Washington, is curious about the phrases people use as a part of leave-taking when they’re finishing a telephone conversation. Linguists who conduct discourse analysis on such conversations say...
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...