A hilarious news story about a pair of heroic terriers that chase off a bear from a California home leads to an equally hilarious correction about the difference between black bears and brown bears. Big ups to Squirt and Mei Mei! This is part of a...
Inspired by our conversation about the language of leave-taking and the Southern expression Y’all come go home with us, Claire in Durham, North Carolina, calls to reminisce about her experience as a teenager in Mexico and the extended good...
Paula in Cheyenne, Wyoming, calls with the story of a moving pilgrimage to the home of Willa Cather in Red Cloud, Nebraska, and shares a favorite passage from Cather’s My Antonia (Bookshop|Amazon). This is part of a complete episode.
Here’s a word to use each New Year’s Day: quaaltagh. It’s pronounced QUAL-tok, and comes from the Isle of Man. It means “the first person to show up at your door on the first day of the year” or “the first person...
In parts of the Southern United States, the leave-taking phrases come and go home with me, come go home with us, and come home with us don’t mean that the departing guest is literally inviting the host to come along. The host’s...
We held our first video streaming event supporting the educational mission of Wayword, Inc., the nonprofit that produces A Way with Words on August 27, 2020. Watch below for a personal conversation about language (of course), books, home life...
