Martha talks about a favorite Latin-based word: pandiculation. It’s a term that means “the stretching that accompanies yawning.” This is part of a complete episode.
The second edition of the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus is chock-full of synonyms, of course, but what makes it special are the essays and usage notes by authors such as Simon Winchester, David Lehman, Zadie Smith, and David Foster...
We all know that the 2008 presidential election was historic. But was it a historic event or an historic event? This is part of a complete episode.
Martha is stumped by a riddle sent in by a listener. See if you can solve it. This is part of a complete episode.
The story goes that hemlines rise and fall with the stock market. If that’s the case, then we hope it’s not long before we’re all hearing people exclaim, “Why, that skirt is almost up to possible!” An Iowa listener...
In an earlier episode, we speculated about the origin of the phrase go commando, which means to go without underwear. We suggested that it was somehow associated with being “tough as a commando,” gritting one’s teeth through the...