Greetings! In this week's archive episode: do you think the Associated Press Stylebook is too stuffy? Then you'll love Fake AP Stylebook, the online send-up that features such faux journalistic advice as "The plural of apostrophe is...
Martha muses about the language of falconry, and in the process, reveals the origins of several words and phrases in one fell swoop.
bee-hawking n.— «Wasps, and hornets in particular, are major predators of bees and the largest ones can make even the giant bees look puny. Some invade hives and steal grubs, while others swoop in and pluck loitering bees from the surface...
swoop down n.— «Celebrities are notorious for skaing around questions. That’s why I like people like Wendy Williams. She issues a “swoop down” that boxes them into a corner so they have no choice but to answer the question or...
sleep coach n.— «The magic of the sleep coach is that they have no emotional attachment to your child. They can come in and simply ignore the crying guilt-free. And that’s what your money gets you. You are paying someone to bear the...
snow sale n.— «I really loved to jump, and it was great fun, but not so fun? Landing. Quite often, I would wipe out spectacularly, resulting in what we loved to call—and call we did, when we witnessed it—a “snow sale.” The...