Unless you’ve been hiding out in a galaxy far, far away, you know that this is an election year. Grant and Martha talk about current political slang. Ever hear of glass pockets? Or horseracism? Is there an etymological connection between...
Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words! This past weekend we celebrated National Grammar Day (again): We also discussed "booby trap," played a quiz based on "snowclones," and talked about the word "piker."...
Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words. This past weekend we gave another airing to our episode about crossword puzzles. This is the one in which we talked about whether it should be "driver license," "drivers'...
A San Diego woman is bothered by the convention of addressing envelopes to Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Shouldn’t we also include the woman’s first name?
A San Diego caller says he’s noticed that his high-school grandson and his buddies habitually refer to each other only by their last names, but his granddaughter says she and her own friends never do. Is this just a teenage guy thing? The book...
Martha and Grant discuss advertising slogans and product names supposedly botched in translation. They also recommend an eclectic mix of books for the word-lover on your holiday list, from military slang to Yiddish. Plus a slang quiz on the words...