Season Premiere: Howdy, It's a Wit's War! - 26 Nov. 2007
It's a brand-new season here on A Way with Words! To celebrate, Martha and Grant are noodling with anagrams.
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
It's a brand-new season here on 'A Way with Words!' To celebrate, Martha and Grant are noodling with anagrams--including the one in the title of this episode. Also:
A New York schoolteacher asks, 'Why do we call our little finger a 'pinkie'?'
Another caller snickers over a newscaster's attempt to pronounce the word 'homage.'
A Hoosier who's been hanging out on motorcycle discussion boards is curious about the origin of the term 'do-rag.'
'Why is an undesirable task is called a 'g-job,'' asks a crew member on the set of the Fox Television series '24.'
Martha shares a trick for remembering the answer to that perennial question: 'Does a comma go inside or outside the quotation marks?'
The hosts weigh in on whether the expression 'very fun' is grammatically correct.
What the heck is a 'podsnicker,' anyway?
Puzzle-man Greg Pliska joins us for a recap of 2007--in limericks!
Finally, is your DVD player always flashing '12:00'? A caller wonders if there's a word for a society ruled by children, something along the lines of 'patriarchy' and 'matriarchy.'
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