How did serialized melodramas come to be called soap operas? The answer has to do with the suds-selling sponsors of old-time radio shows. This is part of a complete episode.
When a theater company gives out free tickets to a performance, it’s called “papering the house.” But what kind of “paper” are we talking about, anyway? This is part of a complete episode.
Our show’s pun-loving Quiz Guy, Greg Pliska, whips up a word game called “Country Kitschin’.” The challenge is to fill in the blank in a sentence with the name of a country so that the spoken sentence makes sense. Try this...
“Don’t tump over the canoe!” The verb to tump is familiar to folks in many parts of the United States. Use it elsewhere, though, and you might get some quizzical looks. What does it mean and who uses it? The hosts tump over their...
Why do some people add a final “th” sound to the word “height”? Heighth? At one time, that pronunciation was perfectly proper. This is part of a complete episode.
If you work in the software industry, you may already know the term dogfooding, which means “to use one’s own product.” Grant explains how dogfood became a verb. This is part of a complete episode.