Grant recommends a book for young readers by Rita Williams-Garcia. It’s called One Crazy Summer, and it’s about three girls who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them. This is part of a complete...
Poet Adrienne Rich wrote powerfully of the “psychic disequilibrium” that occurs when people don’t see their own identities reflected in the language of others, “as if you looked in the mirror and saw nothing.” This is...
Remember the classic films Dogumentary and $3000? Those were their working titles, before they became Best In Show and Pretty Woman. We look at how movie titles evolve and change. Also, is Spanglish a real language? And balaclavas, teaching your...
You’ve been reading a book but you’re just not into it. How do you quit it, guilt-free? How do you break up with a book? Also, what do you ask for when you go through the grocery checkout line: bag, sack, or something else? Plus, brung...
How did the first person to say a dirty word know it was a dirty word? Geoffrey Hughes’ Encyclopedia of Swearing is a great source on this. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The First Dirty Word” Hello, you have A...
Leanne in Richmond, Virginia, heard sitting high and looking low in a Social Security office, where it seemed to describe an employee acting superior to people waiting for help. The expression is used mostly in African American contexts and is...