The language and melodies of military marching songs connect grown children with their parents who served, as do parents’ love letters from World War II. Plus, “running a sandy” describes an awkward love triangle and Northern Spy...
An Omaha, Nebraska, listener has a word for using Google Earth to fly around the planet virtually and zoom in on far-flung locations: floogling, a combination of flying and Googling. This is part of a complete episode.
If everyone on the planet spoke a single language, wouldn’t that make life a whole lot easier? For that matter, is a common world language even possible? Maybe for a minute or so—until new words and phrases start springing up. Also, did you...
A listener in Brazil challenges Martha’s pronunciation of the odd English word antipodes. Their email exchange leads Martha to muse about a favorite collection of poems, where she first encountered this word.
YAWN n.— «Now a new generation of the seriously rich has emerged, but with a difference: the ostentation has gone. The new breed is self-made, socially aware, concerned about the planet and gives a lot of money to charity. They are the...
hootlessness n.— «We also gravitate from win-lose to win-win. We are attracted to goals and actions that are for our own highest and best good, and for the highest and best good of everyone—including the planet as a whole. Lester...