Following up on our earlier conversations about what to call grandparents who move house in order to be nearer their grandkids, Martha proposes trailing grandparents, patterened after the term trailing spouse, which refers to a situation where one spouse gets a great job in another town and the other moves with or after them and looks for a new job, too. This is part of a complete episode.
Sara in Camden, New Jersey, wants a word for those people who are more than acquaintances, but not quite friends. She calls them friendlies, but wonders if there’s a better term. Fracquaintance, maybe? The Danish band Mew has an album called...
Linda from Wichita, Kansas, thinks we need a word for that closed-mouth little smile we give to strangers on the street — not a friendly Duchenne smile, just a polite acknowledgment of the other person’s existence. She suggests the word smurm...
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