Happy Palindrome Day--or, if you prefer, "011110 Day"--from your friends at "A Way with Words"! Lots to report from Language Land: First, there are a number of recent full-length episodes you may not have...
parclo n.—Gloss: Partial cloverleaf exchange. «The Ontario Ministry of Transportation designed a modification to the original cloverleaf to address its shortcomings for the 400-series highways. The redesign creates more room for...
Does your handwriting look like chicken scratches, calligraphy, or maybe something in between? Martha and Grant discuss the state of penmanship, the phenomenon linguists call creaky voice, euphemisms for going to the bathroom, and the New England...
This week, we’re going through the e-mail bag. Here’s a savory, sensuous one. It’s from Stacey in Boulder, Colorado.
skyquake n.— «Roughly a year after a series of bizarre rumbling was reported across the Magic Valley, similar incidents are being reported again in south-central Idaho and northern Nevada.…Often called “skyquakes,” the...
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...