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...
On our Facebook group, listeners had a spirited discussion about the expression I’d like to pick your brain, meaning “I’d like to get your advice.” It’s a metaphor for extracting knowledge, of course, but the literal...
The Internet Archive offers a wealth of digital books and other publications for free checkout, including the 1948 collection of jokes, riddles, and playground sayings called A Rocket in My Pocket: The Rhymes and Chants of Young Americans. This is...
Calisa in Wilmington, North Carolina, wonders about the origin of the term fair to middling, meaning “about average.” It derives from an old system of classifying agricultural products. This is part of a complete episode.
Writer Anne Lamott memorably compared librarians to trail guides, leading people through the forest of shelves and aisles. This is part of a complete episode.
A rock climber in Omaha, Nebraska, wonders about the term beta, which her fellow climbers use to refer to information about a particular route. It comes from the old practice of using Betamax video to record information about a climb. A good...