John, a 10-year-old from Dallas, Texas, wonders why an unpredictable or uncontrollable person can be referred to as a loose cannon. This is part of a complete episode.
You must log in to post a comment.
Navel-Gazing (episode #1549) 06/29/2020: In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city's youngest readers,... [more]
Yak Shaving (episode #1548) 06/08/2020: There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding — and all in Latin.... [more]
Cabin Fever (episode #1547) 04/21/2020: The adjectives canine and feline refer to dogs and cats. But how does English address other groups of animals? Plus, cabin fever has been around... [more]
Singing Sand (episode #1546) 04/06/2020: Cat hair may be something you brush off, but cat hair is also a slang term that means "money." In the same way, cat beer... [more]
Baby's Breath (episode #1545) 03/23/2020: Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There's a word for that: googleganger. Plus,... [more]
I waited days for the online posting of this episode, just so I could forward to family and friends the segment with John thus, under the Subject header “Kid caller’s word-nerd vocabulary cracks up hosts of public-radio language show”: “On ‘A Way With Words’ the other day, little John from Dallas, whose apparent age would seem to be either on the cusp of double digits or that of a descendant of one or more of the actors who played Munchkins somewhere over the rainbow back in 1939, had hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett cracking up right from his salutation (starting at 16:35 on “Yak Shaving” episode from 8 June 2020), thence throughout their discussion of the term ‘loose cannon’, with his grad-school vocabulary.”