This week we talked about unusual ways foreigners learn English, "play golf" vs. "go golfing," lie vs. lay, similes, "yo!," "neck of the woods," "warsh," and more. Listen:

http://waywordradio.org/a-walk.....e-is-good/

Martha has produced an electrifying podcast about how experiments with dead frogs and live wires led to the invention of the battery and inspired a couple of familiar English words.

http://waywordradio.org/leapin.....nventions/

"Shakespell" looks like fun: a Yorkshire family's spelling game with dice. Portable, costs five quid. Neat.

http://tinyurl.com/cqq6oc
http://www.shakespell.com/

Pianos, jerks, even trolls--everything has a "whisperer" now. Mark Peters writes in the Boston Globe:

"Besides a seemingly endless roster of self-described animal whisperers--really, a tarantula whisperer?--there's now the MBA Whisperer, an online consultant who helps applicants get into business school; the Relationship Whisperer, an author and dispenser of dating and marriage advice; the Startup Whisperer, who mentors new entrepreneurs; the Jerk Whisperer, a teacher of workplace communication; and the Sales Whisperer, who promises 'money, prestige, achievement, and success.' The Potty Whisperer and the Plot Whisperer unclog blocked toddlers and writers."

http://tinyurl.com/cnxyt9

Breon Mitchell, director of the Lilly Library at Indiana University, has collected more than 2,000 dictionaries of exotic languages.

http://www.finebooksmagazine.c.....ymad.phtml

What words do you hate? More than 770 people have answered so far.

http://www.plinky.com/prompts/53/answers

The two of us? We love all words though some get a few more hugs than others.

Best wishes,

Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett
Co-hosts of A Way with Words
http://waywordradio.org
words@waywordradio.org

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