If you've eaten crispy chicken, you might also have had jo-jo potatoes. Speaking of chicken, ever wonder why colonel isn't pronounced "KOH-loh-nell"? Grant and Martha have the answers to those nagging little questions, like the difference between a turnpike and a highway and the rules on me versus I. Who's behind eponyms in anatomy and why are doctors phasing them out? Plus, a newsy limerick challenge, dog breed mashups, pallets, a little Spanglish, and enough -ologies to fill a course catalog!

This episode first aired December 10, 2011. Listen here:

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What's your favorite -ology? Perhaps alethiology, the study of truth, from the Greek "alethia"? Theologians might concern themselves with naology, the study of holy buildings.

What are jo-jo potatoes? Starting in the 1960s, fried potato wedges took that name in some of the Northern states. jo-jos were often served in restaurants that also made a type of chicken which requires a special type of deep fat fryer. Jo-jos are simply unpeeled potato wedges thrown in the fryer, but the name may have derived from the idea of "junk," because the potato scraps were considered worthless until restaurateurs realized they could be marketed and sold.

We'll keep this short: perissology is the superfluity of words.

Why is "colonel" pronounced like "kernel"? The original form comes from Italy, where a colonello was in charge of a column of soldiers. As it moved from Italian to French, it took on an r sound, but the English translators reverted to the more etymologically correct Italian spelling. That's why it looks one way but sounds another.

What do you get when you mix a Shelty and a Cocker? A Shocker! Or how about a Dachshund and a Border Collie? That'd make it a Dashboard. We don't want to know what you'd call a cross between a Pit Bull and Shih Tzu.

Hope you've been checking the headlines, because our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a new set of current-event limericks. What's been "occupied?" How long did the Kardashian marriage last? And who made ambiguous the definition of the word "winning"?

A thick blanket or stack of blankets is also called a pallet. The Dictionary of American Regional English says this term is most common in the South Midlands — such states as Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. In the New American Standard Translation of the Bible (John 5:8) Jesus says to a man who's been incapacitated for nearly 40 years, "Pick up your pallet and walk." The term comes from French, where a pallet was a thick, woven mat of hay to lie on.

The usage of the word me vs. I will always be a point of debate. Grant and Martha contend that language works in the service of culture, and thus, there will always be informal settings where the words me and I are slung around interchangeably. Then again, there will also be classrooms, job interviews and the like, where "my colleague and I completed the project" is the better choice than "me and my colleague completed the project."

Aesthetes might go for kalology, or "the study of beauty."

What's the difference between a turnpike and a highway? In the 1700s, privately funded roads were constructed in the Northeast to connect commercial centers, but tolls were charged in order to pay for the wood planks that covered the road; this was well before gravel or pavement came about. A turnpike itself is the bar on a turnstile, much like you'd see in a subway station or an amusement park. One pays the toll then moves through the turnpike. On the other hand, freeways were the dirt roads that didn't require a toll.

Anatomy is full of eponyms — that is, words inspired by the name of a person. In this case, there are the fallopian tubes, the Achilles heel, and the eustachian tubes. But there's a movement in anatomy to replace eponyms with more scientific, descriptive names. Thus, fallopian tubes are now uterine tubes and eustachian tubes are auditory tubes.

The Spanglish term "frajo," meaning "cigarette," evolved over a couple of generations of Mexican-American language. Primarily thanks to pachucos, sometimes known as zoot-suiters, the term developed from the verb "fajar", meaning "to wrap up or roll."

A flock of starlings is called a murmuration, and a beautiful video of a murmuration of starlings flying about has been described by Martha as "nature's ornithological lava lamp."

If you're looking for a clever way to straddle the glass-half-empty line, try using litotes, or understated slights turned positive. For example, the guy you met for a blind date was really not unattractive.

If you're into fungus among us, you might enjoy uredinology, the study of rust molds.

Why do we refer to people of questionable sanity as nuts, nutty, or nut-cases? In the early 1600s, a nut was considered something "pleasing" or "delightful." Its meaning then transferred to someone who liked something pleasing, and then someone obsessed with that thing to the point of eccentricity or weirdness.

Zymology? That's the study of joining or fastening.

… Read the original blog post.

Gary Syck said:

defenestrated. Look it up

When I did, it made me think of the old (Ozarkian?) saying: He was so poor he did not have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.

Emmett

Post edited 12:26PM – Dec-15-11 by EmmettRedd

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Concerning a murmuration of starlings:

A few years ago, to keep starlings from roosting in the trees, our campus blasted starling distress cries from the football stadium sound system. It sure did not sound like a murmur.

Emmett

This member and his father helped build the Cimarron Turnpike in 1973 and 1974 while working for the Koss Construction Company.

Emmett

Post edited 8:31AM – Dec-20-11 by Glenn

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Regarding the order of conjoined subjects or objects, my schooling took it even further. I was taught that you must but second person first, third person next, and first person last (of course, omitting any that are not relevant to the context).

So, according to my teachers it should be:

You, Chris, Leslie, and I are going to regret this evening.
The prosecutor is going light on you, Pat, Lee, and me.
How are you, Alex, the dog, and I going to fit in this sewer?
The orangutan and I clearly need to keep an eye on you, Jo, and the horse.

The reasons I was given were all along the lines of "propriety," rather than grammar. But we were still graded on getting it right. In my adult life, I always took this word order as being a suggestion, rather than a rule. Some sentences make "propriety" seem like a pretty small matter.

bklvr said:

–'me went to the store' doesn't sound informal but entirely wrong, which is what makes the Cookie Monster so funny. Well, that along with his two other rule-breakings–eating messily, and wanting sweets (which they later tried to balance out with veggies, of course). 8D

Could it be that Cookie Monster is the source of "me and …"? After all, kids may have been learning his speech rather than realizing he was being funny.

Emmett