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Cute as a Button

Did you ever wonder why we capitalize the pronoun “I,” but not any other pronoun? Also, the romantic story behind the term halcyon days, the origin of the phrase “like white on rice,” and the linguistic scuttlebutt on the...

Tom Swifty Word Game

Our Puzzle Maestro John Chaneski has a great variation of his classic Tom Swifty game, based on adjectives that fit their subjects. For example, how did the citizens feel upon hearing that the dictator of their small country shut down the newspapers...

Listener Tom Swifties

Grant shares Tom Swifties sent in by listeners: “Aw, shucks, I dropped the toothpaste,” Tom said crestfallenly, and “I’ve located the experts,” Tom said profoundly. This is part of a complete episode.

Sufficiently Suffonsified

What’s in a pet’s name? Martha and Grant swap stories about how they came up with names for their dogs. Also this week: Have you ever been called a stump-jumper? How about a snicklefritz? And what’s the last word in the dictionary...

A Gazelle on the Lawn

What do you say if you have guests over and someone in your family has stray food left on the face? In some households, the secret warning is “there’s a gazelle on the lawn.” But why a gazelle? Also, this week: the term for a party...

A Whole Nother Newsletter!

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...

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