If English isn’t your first language, there are lots of ways to learn it, such as memorizing Barack Obama’s speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention. Martha and Grant talk about some of the unusual ways foreigners are learning to speak...
In a 1936 episode of Jack Benny’s radio show, a woman says that her father sprained his ankle the night before while truckin’. This has an A Way with Words listener confused; she thought trucking was a term from the 1970s. Grant clears...
hang iron v. phr.— «During snowstorms in Portland, Ore., before Christmas, Kelley had to chain up, or “hang iron” as he calls it. “It takes two hours to hang my iron.”» —“Road closures make a costly wait for...
trucking n.— «Investigations late last year found the commercial boats had been fishing off one part of Stewart Island and then reporting the catch as having been made in another area. The ministry says its analysis of the first...
run wild v. phr.— «His usual workweek is a five-day, four-night route around California or the Southwest—”running wild” in Wal-Mart trucker parlance—delivering goods to stores, used pallets to warehouses and...
trucking n.— «The investigation concerns misreporting catch from one fishing area to another, a practice commonly known in the fishing industry as “trucking,” Mr Green said.» —“MFish seizes second Korean fishing vessel in...