In this episode, Martha and Grant honor winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes, those wacky awards for weird academic research, and they help a caller decipher a puzzling word from a personals ad: what does paratereseomaniac mean?
hummus queen n.— «Another demographic was making itself known in the gay Arab-American world: “hummus queens”— gay men attracted to Arabs. Not that all hummus queens were on the make: One attended to seek advice on how to help his closeted Arab...
slip queen n.— «At the same time, state officials are about to launch an educational outreach program aimed at marine boat owners. Nonnative tunicates sometimes attach themselves to hulls. Particularly vulnerable are so-called “slip queens,” or...
taxi queen n.— «Teenage girls are being used by unscrupulous taxi operators in Chatsworth as “scouts” to identify potential robbery targets. The girls—many of whom are addicted to drugs—are planted in taxis to identify passengers carrying large...
joy rider n.— «“On the second day, we were quite bad, very seasick,” said Laura Browning, 51, of Manchester, England, who sailed to New York with her husband, Steve, aboard the Queen Victoria.…“The crew distributed some tablets to those of us who...
This week’s “Slang This!” contestant learns the difference between a trailer queen and soup spitter. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Trailer Queen and Soup Spitter” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett. And I’m...