Our conversation about women who use the nicknames Gertie or Gert as jokingly affectionate terms for each other, prompted a listener in Melbourne, Australia, to speculate that it’s a nod to Gertrude Lawrence, an English performer who rose to...
Following up on our conversation about indefinite hyperbolic numerals like forty-eleven and zillion, we discuss humpty-twelve. Another slang term used to denote a large quantity is telephone numbers, which can be applied to “an excessive amount of...
Artist Alan Nakagawa’s project involving haikus about social distancing includes a funny take on just how blurred boundaries can become while under lockdown. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Another Lockdown Haiku” I was sharing...
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell, for example, advocated answering with Ahoy!, while Thomas Edison argued for Hello. As linguist...
There’s a difference between a crank call and a prank call. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Crank Call vs. Prank Call” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Storm calling from San Antonio, Texas. Hi, Storm. Welcome. What...
After an earlier conversation about ending phone calls with mmm-bye, Esther remembers her mother answering the phone with Nyello! The greeting was so memorable that Esther and friends once called from a slumber party just to hear it and laugh. This...