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Episode 1536

The Black Dog

Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scribes sometimes added a curse to the first page of those books that was supposed to keep thieves away — and some were as vicious as...

And You Go And You Go And You Go…

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...

Episode 1365

Bump and Grind

Remember a few years ago when Amazon introduced that mysterious device called a Kindle? People worried that electronic readers would replace traditional books. Turns out the death of the hardcover was greatly exaggerated. Also, the expression...

The Exception for Y’all

Alan from Austin, Texas, asks: How do y’all punctuate the contraction of you all? Is it y’all or ya’ll? You’d think it’d follow the pattern of she’ll and we’ll, but y’all is an exception to the rule...

Multiple Modals

Multiple modals, as in the phrase “I thought y’all may would have some more of them,” have their own logic and are well understood by many in the American South. The Database of Multiple Modals compiled by Paul Reed and Michael...

The Eagle Has Landed

Howdy, folks! You still have three days to win a brand-new “A Way with Words” iPod Shuffle stocked with our 10 favorite episodes of the show, plus room for much more. To be eligible, take the listener feedback survey: It takes just a...