The first of two podcasts this week includes a special message to A Way with Words podcast listeners. Also, Martha answers a listener’s email about the term sea change. Or is it C change?
“You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!” It means you look “disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.” It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of schoolchildren familiar with this...
globster n.— «Many monster enthusiasts believe that huge, unidentified masses that occasionally wash up on beaches throughout the world are sea monsters. These finds, often called globsters, are obviously flesh, yet have decayed so badly that they...
Lee from Philadelphia’s green Amazon parrot is named Alexander Hamilton, not Polly, but strangers still greet him with Polly want a cracker? The joke is old: Poll was a nickname for parrots as far back as the 1600s, and by 1848 the cracker line was...
sea kitten n.— «People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals—believes calling fish sea kittens will make sea food less appealing.» —“PETA’s latest idiotic demand” Courier Mail (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) Jan. 9, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued...
gulch n.— «For Glyn Willacott, there was never a dull moment aboard HMS Cardiff. The 59-year-old served as a weapons engineer between 1982 and 1985, travelling to the Falklands, the Persian Gulf and, of course, back to the ship’s home city of...