Comments on: Secret Gibberish http://www.waywordradio.org/secret-gibberish-full-episode/ A lively radio program about words and language, broadcast on many NPR stations and heard by podcast around the world. It's more than grammar! Sat, 18 May 2013 23:30:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: hippogriff http://www.waywordradio.org/secret-gibberish-full-episode/#comment-2784 hippogriff Thu, 23 Aug 2012 06:27:04 +0000 http://www.waywordradio.org/?p=1165#comment-2784 Ron Draney: There is no term for a young great anteater (which prefers termites), but another ant eating endentate, the armadillo, has pups, so maybe that will work.

P’kahn is the state tree of Texas, but the state nut is the governor. A pea can is a cylindrical metal container for monocote legumes.

Bullnettle seeds can substitute for the pecans. Use kitchen tongs to pick the pods as soon as the part between the lobes turns white. Put them in nesting cans in the sun until they pop (without the enclosure, they will pop several feet and never be found). Shell with a pocket knife and use a pecan recipe for the pie. They taste between a peanut and sunflower seed. The disadvantage is they take a long time shelling to get enough for a pie.

The guide’s false etymology sounded disgustingly like the treatment of “second class” citizens under Jim Crow and I would have pointed it out had I been there.

]]> By: camelsamba http://www.waywordradio.org/secret-gibberish-full-episode/#comment-2779 camelsamba Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:08:01 +0000 http://www.waywordradio.org/?p=1165#comment-2779 I’ll need to re-listen to the episode to see how “pecan” is handled, but this brings to mind a story we recently listened to while on vacation. (I believe it was The Search for Belle Prater but am not certain.) One of the characters states that a PEE-can is what you keep under the bed. Made me laugh, because I’ve always been in the puh-KAHN camp myself!

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