A man who works nights in a mortuary in Brookings, Oregon is curious about the origin of—what else?—graveyard shift. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of Graveyard Shift” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Kenny...
An Episcopal priest in Toledo worries that her sermons are cluttered with dashes. This works just fine when she’s preaching, but when the same text appears on her church’s website, it looks like a messy tangle of words and punctuation. The hosts...
Barack Obama wants to put people to work building roads and bridges. But how about a federal jobs program for out-of-work writers? Also: why do we call it a flight of wine? How did the haircut called a mullet get its name?
weisure n.— «The line dividing work and leisure time is blurring right before our eyes, says one expert, and it’s creating a phenomenon called “weisure time.” Many who haven’t already abandoned the 9-to-5 workday for the 24-7 life of weisure...
President Barack Obama hopes to boost the economy by pouring federal dollars into efforts to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, much like the old Works Progress Administration of the 1930s. But how about reviving that other jobs program from the...
night trick n.— «Sandra Gill works the “night trick,” a term used to describe the night shift, as a yardmaster at the North White Plains yard of the Metro-North Railroad. She took the job with the thought that working overnight would allow her to...
