Light-hearted conversation with callers from all over about new words, old sayings, slang, family ex
This week, we received an email from Randy in San Diego. Randy writes: 'I recently got myself three
Recently The New Yorker magazine ran a profile of the writer David Foster Wallace, who died last yea
Martha explains how experiments with dead frogs and live wires led to the invention of the battery,
[Portions of this episode were first broadcast November 1, 2008.] Apple core, Baltimore! Ever play
Time for another linguistic mystery. Where would you be if you decided to go twacking around duckis
Time for another linguistic mystery. In what part of the country would you be likely to hear older f
Time to solve another linguistic mystery. You're in a restaurant. You overhear a conversation at th
Where in the world would you be likely to find sculch in your dooryard, or ask for just a dite of cr
Obamamania, Obamabot, Obamathon, Obamamentum— the list of variations on the name “Obama” goes on and
Listen: Can you guess what this is? 'Huup huup huup . . . huup huup huup . . . huup huup huup.' No
We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about words
Hockey mom, mavericky, snow machines, and--how could we forget that other memorable phrase from the
The death of Martha's favorite cat Typo prompts her to reminisce about him, and about one of her fav
We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about "groun
We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Being an election year, it ge
[This episode first aired September 20, 2008.] Here's a bit of political slang now making the round
We kick off our series on contenders for 2008's "Word of the Year" with a look at "nuke the fridge."
It's that time again, when people start thinking about a 'new or resurgent word or phrase that best
It's a warm day in late autumn. You're out for a stroll in the country. If the air is still, and the
[This episode first aired September 13, 2008.] When you get to the end of a wonderful book, your fi
