Jump Steady - 23 November 2015
A fifth wheel.
A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over · Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett. Produced by Stefanie Levine.
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Show Notes
To transmit information during wartime, various industries used to encode their messages letter by letter with an elaborate system–a primitive version of today’s digital encryption. Grant breaks down some of those secret codes, and shares the story of the most extensive telegram ever sent. Plus, we’ve all been there: Your friends are on a date, and you’re tagging along. Are you a “third wheel”–or the “fifth wheel”? There’s more than one term for the odd person out. Finally, a rhyming quiz about famous poems. For example, what immortal line of poetry rhymes with: “Prose is a nose is a hose is a pose”? Plus, women named after their mothers, variations on “Happy Birthday,” “at bay,” nannies’ charges, and a racy blues singer who taught us to “jump steady.”
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