In a 1936 episode of Jack Benny’s radio show, a woman says that her father sprained his ankle the night before while truckin’. This has an A Way with Words listener confused; she thought trucking was a term from the 1970s. Grant clears...
Beep-boop-beep! It's another newsletter from "A Way with Words." This weekend we had a row over the death of the subjunctive, listened with curiosity to a Texan talking about "help your plate," fell in love with...
Ahoy, mateys, and welcome aboard another newsletter from A Way with Words! We are delighted to welcome our new listeners from KTOO in Juneau, Alaska, and WCAI, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The smell of leather-bound books and printer's ink is...
Hiya, folks. It's another newsletter from A Way with Words! Aside from flagellating ourselves for the homophonic error in last week's newsletter (error is always in a hurry), we also aired a radio show and posted a minicast. The topics on...
magic Negro n.— «This is a head-shaker. Imus gets canned for calling some college women basketball players “nappy-headed hos” and yet Rush Limbaugh plays “Barack The Magic Negro” on his show and he is still on the...
Greetings, oh wise ones. Here's another podcast, this one featuring a slang quiz on the word "phonemarking." In our discussion forums we're still taking entries to win a copy of Jeff Prucher's book, "The Oxford Dictionary...