Fellow wordivas and wordudes,
This week on A Way with Words we start a brand-new season! To celebrate, we noodled with anagrams, including the one in the title of this episode.
Also on the show:
- A New York City schoolteacher asks, “Why do we call our little finger a pinkie?” and relates his invented etymology.
- Another caller snickers over a newscaster’s attempt to pronounce the word homage. Which of the six ways is best?
- A Hoosier who’s been hanging out on motorcycle discussion boards is curious about the origin of the term do-rag. Or is it dew-rag?
- “Why is an undesirable task called a g-job?” asks a crew member on the set of the Fox Television series 24.
- Martha shares a trick for remembering the answer to that perennial question: “Does a comma go inside or outside of quotation marks?”
- The hosts weigh in on whether the expression very fun is grammatically correct.
- What the heck is a podsnicker?
- Puzzle-man Greg Pliska joins us for a recap of 2007—in limericks!
- Is your DVD player always flashing “12:00”? A caller wonders if there’s a word for a society ruled by children, something along the lines of patriarchy and matriarchy.
- Also join us for another slang quiz, in which DeeDee picks slon doon as her favorite slang word. What does slon doon mean?.
Your obedient servants,
Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett
