Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words! This past weekend we listened to the episode which featured "layers for meddlers and crutches for lame ducks" and "you buy 'em books, you give 'em books, and all they do is...
audio puppeteering n.— «To that end Mr. Stanton enlisted the man who created the grammar of the “Star Wars” robot R2D2, the veteran sound designer Ben Burtt. Mr. Stanton wrote a conventional script—“Hi, I’m Wall-E”—and Mr. Burtt...
In this episode, a listener says his friend Harold likes to do social phoning while driving, so he’s invented a term for mindless calling while in the car. And no, it’s not “car-pe diem.” Also, Martha and Grant also discuss...
anticipointment n.— «WPXI news director Corrie Harding acknowledged there’s a term for teasing stories that don’t deliver: “anticipointment.” “If we make a story sound like the second coming and tease it four times and...
Hello from Indianapolis, where we've just spent a great weekend with the staff and listeners of WFYI 90.1. You can listen to this week's show here: We talked about words we read but didn't know, like "spanghew" and...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle about homophones, in this case, words that sound just like participles that have lost their final “g,” like button and buttin’. The first clue: “Picture Vladimir Putin trying to catch...