(This episode first aired January 5, 2008.)Ding! In this week's episode, Mark Twain would be pleased. Reports that
it's the end of the line for the typewriter have been greatly
exaggerated. Well, slightly anyway: it's not the horseless carriage
return yet. Martha and Grant wax nostalgic about the pleasures of
pecking away at a rumbling, shuddering Selectric.A newspaper
headline about a faltering legislative proposal prompts a caller to
ask: Should they have written 'floundering' or 'foundering'?A
longboarder reports she and her fellow surfers refer to young surfers
as 'groms' or 'grommets'--not to be confused, of course, with 'hodads'
and 'kooks.' But where'd that surfing lingo come from?Greg Pliska presents a punny political puzzle about the names of presidential candidates.A
listener says his sister reprimanded him for using the term 'rule of
thumb.' She says the expression derives from an old British law that
allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick, as long as it's no wider
than his thumb. Is that story true?A caller wonders if the acrobatic 'alley-oop' in basketball is connected with the V.T. Hamlin comic strip, 'Alley Oop.'Is 'irregardless' a real word? A caller wants his wife to stop saying it. Good thing he loves her regardless!A
commuter hears a radio report about an organization that's 'giving away
condoms like they were going out of style.' But, he wonders, if they're
really 'going out of style,' then why are they so popular? Isn't the
phrase 'giving them away like they were going out of style'
contradictory?In California, everybody gets a little crazy when
those hot, dry winds called 'Santa Anas' start blowing. A caller asks
the origin of the name. Is it a translation of Spanish for 'Satan's
wind'?By the way, here's how novelist Raymond Chandler described that meteorological phenomenon in his short story, 'Red Wind':'There
was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa
Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and
make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every
booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the
carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You
can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.'That's all the hot air we have time for this week!--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.