If your iPhone’s Siri thinks that two meetings in one day is not bad, does that make her an optimist? Since when did cellphones start making value judgments? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Optimistic Technology” Grant, you...
Does turn up the A.C. mean make the room cooler or raise the thermostat and make it warmer? Kirsten from Tucson, Arizona, asks about the tricky little word up, because with heat, the machine’s effort and the temperature both rise, while with air...
What’s the difference between a geek and a nerd? An Ohio professor of popular culture wants to talk about it. Here’s the a MetaFilter thread and a Venn diagram about the differences. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Geek or Nerd?”...
Is subscribing just for magazines and podcasts, or can you subscribe to an idea? A husband and wife disagree over whether the latter is grammatically correct. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Subscribing to an Idea” Hi, you have A...
A woman from upstate New York says her stepfather used to keep small dishes in various rooms to collect small odds and ends like paper clips and rubber bands. He called them culch piles. Martha has the story on this term. This is part of a complete...
Predictive text on cellphones can result in some amusing accidental substitutions. The word for that: textonym. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Textonym” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, how are you? Doing well. Who’s this...