If you’re inappropriately focused on the minutiae of a project instead of the bigger picture, you’re said to be bike-shedding. Grant talks about that modern slang term and Martha discusses a word that goes way back in time, right back to “In the...
Grant interviews Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings about the grueling nature of TV quiz shows, the fine art of writing trivia questions, the special challenges of competing in European quiz contests, and how it feels to answer incorrectly.
Crime novelist James Ellroy, author of The Black Dahlia and most recently, Blood’s a Rover, tries his hand at a slang quiz. He reveals his favorite slang term, then tries to guess the meaning of the slang words buzzer, sheetwriter, and geetus, and...
It’s “Slang for $500.” All-time Jeopardy! Champion Ken Jennings tackles his next logical challenge, the A Way with Words slang quiz. Ken puzzles over the meaning of brummagem and pluck of a pig, and tries to guess an usual meaning for the term...
Humorist Roy Blount Jr. stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz specifically about Southernisms.
In this week’s installment of “Slang This!,” Grant and Martha are joined by June Casagrande, author of Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get you Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs — Even If You’re Right. June tries to pick out the true slang...