Sharpen those pencils! Martha and Grant are doing crossword puzzles on the air again, preparing for their appearance with NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in New York City. This is part of a complete episode.
Salutations and greetings! This past weekend we aired a brand-new show on which we talked about how far back into history a modern person could understand English, what you shout when you're playing hide-and-seek (ollie, ollie oxen...
Welcome to another edition of the A Way with Words newsletter! On the air this past weekend we chatted with listeners about the driving games "padiddle" and "slug bug," about the pronunciation of "aunt," about the...
freeroll n.— «About 20 people had come to play poker before 2 p.m. yesterday, attracted by its being a “freeroll” day, they said, which generally involves a tournament that is free to enter but has a cash prize donated by the host, as a...
skittles room n.—Gloss: at the venue of a chess tournament, an area or room where players can play informally, either for fun or to hustle each other for money. Note: A commenter remarks that he’s known this term for 40 years, which...
moonball n.— «From the extreme to the subtle, there was Torben Ulrich, the bearded Danish eccentric who found himself playing Bill Hoepner in the 1953 Pacific Coast Tournament at the Berkeley Tennis Club. Hoepner was intensely annoying...