Eva in Fairbanks, Alaska, wonders why her grandmother used to say raise the window down when she wanted someone to open that window. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Raise the Window Down” Hello, you have A Way with...
Decisions by dictionary editors, wacky wordplay, and Walt Whitman’s soaring verse. How do lexicographers decide which historical figures deserve a mention or perhaps even an illustration in the dictionary? The answer changes with the times. •...
A San Antonio, Texas, listener lives in a house built by his grandfather, who was from Finland. The house has a small window in an upper corner that supposedly was designed to ensure that evil spirits could escape from the house. He thinks...
Would you rather live in a world with no adjectives … or no verbs — and why? Also, who in the world is that director Alan Smithee [SMITH-ee] who made decades’ of crummy films? Turns out that if a movie director has his work wrested away...
Mitch in Florida, a video editor, wanted a fancy, billable-sounding verb for extracting video from a computer — the opposite of ingesting it into a system. Listener suggestions ranged from cull, evict, extirpate, expunge, expede, disassemble...
When a cat finds that perfect square on the floor that’s being illuminated by the sun coming through a glass window, you might call that spot a cat trap. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Cat Trap” Remember the...