Do you have a favorite letter? The sound or typeface varieties of a letter can really catch us. For more about the visual and emotional properties of various letters, check out Simon Garfield’s book about fonts, Just My Type. Grant also...
Howdy! Recently we talked about why some puns seem clever, while others fall flat as a pancake. Also, what’s the difference between “luggage” and “baggage”? What do you call someone who doesn’t eat fish? Plus, a...
How many spaces go after a period? Your schoolteacher may have taught you to use two, but others strongly disagree. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “How Many Spaces?” You’re listening to A Way with Words...
Pity the poor typeface designer, always seeing anachronisms in movies and television. Imagine how painful it must be watching a World War II movie only to see a document printed in Snell Roundhand Bold, a font invented in 1972. Here’s typeface...
A reader of The Atlantic magazine is surprised to find that they’re not capitalizing letters in headlines the way they used to. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Headline Capitalization” Hello, you have A Way with...
Scott in Kokomo, Indiana, noticed his daughter’s school using rubric for a grading grid. The word goes back to a Latin word for “red,” and to red ochre used in manuscripts for headings and directions that needed to stand out. In Christian texts...