JJ spent much of his life in Rhode Island but now lives in Racine, Wisconsin, which has led to some hilarious misunderstandings involving the different dialects of those regions. For one thing, his neighbors in the Midwest made certain assumptions...
Jennifer from Racine, Wisconsin, uses hooptie — also spelled hoopty or hoopdee — for her aging 1988 Mazda RX-7 convertible, despite her husband’s doubts that the word is real. The slang dates at least to the 1960s, when it could simply mean a car or...
A woman in Racine, Wisconsin, says her father and his fellow bus drivers always pronounced the word schedule as “skeh-DOO-lee.” Is that an accepted pronunciation? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Skehdoolee”...
Martha reports on some listeners’ neologisms for the north-south equivalent of bicoastal. So far, their suggestions for people who make those long, longitudinal commutes have been limited to the left coast, including: No-Cals, Yo-Cals, Bi...
A Wisconsin listener remembers a boss who used to use an odd expression whenever he wanted to change the subject of a discussion. The boss would say, “Well, wet birds don’t fly at night,” then switch to another subject. Grant...

