Is there a word you keep having to look up in the dictionary, no matter how many times you’ve looked it up before? Maybe it’s time for a mnemonic device. And: a listener shares a letter from Kurt Vonnegut himself, with some reassuring advice about what to do when the words just won’t come. Plus, what does it mean when someone asks if you came in on the noon balloon? Also: bog standard, brumate, Ricky Rescue, Ned in the primer, a horse apiece, Blackacre vs. Whiteacre, childish vs. childlike, do the needful, and “Do what?”

Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email [email protected]. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation.

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This week on "A Way with Words," tricks and tips for writers: Is there a word you keep having to look up in the dictionary, no matter how many times you've looked it up before? Maybe it's time for a mnemonic device. And: a listener shares a letter from Kurt Vonnegut himself, with some reassuring advice about what to do when the words just won't come. Plus, what does it mean when someone asks if you came in on the noon balloon? Also: bog standard, brumate, Ricky Rescue, Ned in the primer, a horse apiece, Blackacre vs. Whiteacre, childish vs. childlike, do the needful, and Do what?.


FULL DETAILS

If you think back on all the words you've looked up in the past year, only to turn around and forget their definitions immediately, Martha’s New Year's resolution sounds like a no-brainer: be a little more mindful, and take care to actually remember the meanings of words like enervate (it's "to drain someone or something of vitality").

In place of pardon or excuse me, it's common to hear a Texan or a Southerner say, Do what? Variations include What now?, Do how?, and Do which?

To brumate, meaning "to hibernate during the winter," comes from the wintry word brumal. So if you're tired of using the same old wintry adjectives, try describing the weather as brumal.

Hark your racket, meaning, "shush," is a variant of hark your noise, which pops up in Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine as far back as the 1940's.

Columnist Lucy Kellaway wrote in the Financial Times about feeling less anxious and fearful in the workplace as she gets older. She concluded that such feelings are bog standard, a British expression meaning "common" or "widespread."

Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a word game based on the preferences of Mookie the Cow, whose favorite things have names that feature moo sounds. That loose Hawaiian garment, for example.

To be like Ned in the primer, meaning "troublesome" or "rambunctious," refers to an old series of children’s books—also known as primers—about Ned and Nancy, a mischievous boy and a straitlaced girl.

Do the needful is a phrase commonly heard from people in India working in tech support. Though it's fallen out of fashion in British dialects, it's still common in India to mean "do what you must."

A while back, we talked about the teasing nickname Billy Badass, thrown around in the military to refer to someone a little too gung ho. In the firefighting and EMT professions, the equivalent name is Ricky Rescue.

Do you think I came in on the noon balloon? is a colorful alternative to Do you think I was born yesterday? The phrase pops up both in the columns of the late sportswriter Frank Finch and the 1967 novelty song, "Noon Balloon to Rangoon," by Nervous Norvus.

In real estate law, names like Blackacre, Whiteacre, and Greenacre are fictitious stand-in names for estates or plots of land used by attorneys when discussing hypothetical cases.

An Upper Michigan listener with form of dyslexia told us he wrote to Kurt Vonnegut years ago about his frustration with trying to become a published writer. Vonnegut wrote back, assuring that when you care enough about your subject, the right words will come, and you need not worry about spelling—or getting it published. Here's hoping the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library gets a copy.

A horse apiece, meaning "six of one, half a dozen of the other," comes from an old dice gambling game to describe a draw.

When a cat finds that perfect square on the floor that's being illuminated by the sun coming through a glass window, you might call that spot a cat trap.

A tech professional wants a word that means the opposite of ingest, as in ingesting a video. Specifically, he needs something that sounds like it's worth 200 bucks an hour. Divest, maybe?

The Stendhal syndrome is a term used to describe feeling overwhelmed by the beauty of a work of art. The name comes from the French writer Stendhal, who wrote about the dizzying sensation of seeing the art in Florence. It's somewhat similar to the Jerusalem syndrome, where visitors to that city are overtaken with emotion from standing in the same spots as biblical figures.

There's a difference in connotation between childish and childlike. Childish, like many words ending in -ish, has a derogatory vibe. Childlike, on the other hand, has more to do with something possessing the charm and wonder of a child.

Kurt Vonnegut gave us this timeless quote in his novel Cat's Cradle: "People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order, so they'll have good voice boxes in case there’s ever anything really meaningful to say."

This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

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If you’re sending out party invitations, what’s a sure-fire way to get hold of everyone? Email? Snailmail? Facebook? Texting? Twitter? Or a plain old-fashioned phone call? Different folks have different communication preferences, and accommodating all of them can be a challenge. Also, when someone says “Catch my fade,” is that good news or bad? And: what to do if your cheese is blinky. Plus, pipe down, cease and desist, peach and bungalow, rush the growler, pagophilic, a famous insult from Hollywood, and a grandma’s edgy phrase for washing up in the sink.

Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email [email protected]. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation.

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This week on "A Way with Words," reaching out in the digital age: If you're sending out party invitations, what's a sure-fire way to get hold of everyone? Email? Snailmail? Facebook? Texting? Twitter? Or a plain old-fashioned phone call?  Different folks have different preferences, and accommodating all those communication styles can be a challenge. Also, when someone says Catch my fade, is that good news or bad? And: what to do if your cheese is blinky. Plus, pipe down, cease and desist, peach and bungalow, rush the growler, pagophilic, a famous insult from Hollywood, and a grandma's edgy phrase for washing up in the sink.

FULL DETAILS

There are two kinds of readers in the world: those who blow past a word they don't know, and those who drop everything, run to the dictionary, and dig and dig until they figure out what in the world something like pagophilic means. Yes, we fall into the latter camp. And pagophilia, if you're wondering, means "a love of ice."

Cease and desist may seem redundant to the layperson—it's sort of like saying "stop and stop"—but for lawyers, it's a leak-proof way to say, stop and don’t ever do this again.

Pipe down, meaning "shush," comes from the days when a ship's bosun (or bo's'n or bos'n, also known as a boatswain), would actually blow a whistle to tell the rest of the crew that the wind had shifted or a certain action needed to take place.

We say rush the growler to mean "go fetch the booze" because, back in the 1880s, people got around the new liquor laws by sending kids scurrying down to the bar with an empty growler in hand to fill up. Variations of this include chase the duck and chase the can.

An old book of proverbs gave us this one, which could be taken as a good thing or a warning: Wedlock is a padlock.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski is back with a game called Definitely Cryptic, where the article "a" is combined with a word to form a new word. Try this one: "glass container; slightly open."

A bunch of English words actually take from the names of old places: peach comes from Persia, bungalow refers to a house "of the Bengal type," and laconic refers to the region of Sparta famous as a place where people valued speech that was brief and to the point.

The slang threat I’ll butter your necktie! was made famous by the 1950 film Harvey.

We spoke a little while ago about quickie baths, which one listener called a Georgia bath, but we got a letter from someone who’s grandmother used to refer to it as swabbin’ the vitals, that last word sounding like "vittles."

Preheat, as in preheat the oven, doesn't mean "heat before heating." It's a single word with a concrete idea, akin to "prepay." It's perfectly acceptable to use.

An old expression from Yorkshire: I'm not as green as I am cabbage-looking, meaning, "I may look new to this, but I'm not."

If you're sending out party invitations, what's the sure-fire way to get ahold of everyone? Mail? Email? Facebook? Texting? Do we even know each other's phone numbers anymore? Why can't there just be one system that everyone uses?!

Larovers to catch meddlers, layovers for meddlers, and many variations thereof, are among the comically evasive things parents say when their kids ask, "What's that?" It essentially means, "shoo."

Invasivores, or people who eat invasive species for, among other reasons, getting rid of them, are really trendy right now. And a bit more reasonable than freegans.

Catch my fade, meaning, "I'm going to beat you up," takes from a 100-year-old usage of fade. To fade someone meant to punish, beat, or conquer another.

A listener who works as a proofreader for academic texts wrote in with his own eponymous law that, like the academic texts the law addresses, is way too long to transcribe here.

When something's blinky, it smells bad enough to make you blink. Spoiled pimento cheese, for example, can be blinky. The origin of blinky is uncertain, although it may derive from on the blink, as in "not working correctly."

This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: [email protected]

Phone:
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It’s time for book recommendations! Martha’s enjoying an armchair tour of important places in the history of our language, and Grant recommends relaxing with books that make great reading for both children and adults. Plus, are you the type of shopper who gets in and out of a store quickly? Or would you rather research that purchase in advance and then try before you buy? No matter where you fall on the shopping scale, psychologists have a name for you. And here’s a wintry question: if you’re panking something, just what are you doing? Plus, how to pronounce short-lived, a slang term for flirting, “ass over teakettle,” and an amusing 19th-century rant about young people’s slang.

Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email [email protected]. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on "A Way with Words": 'Tis the season for book recommendations! Martha's enjoying an armchair tour of important places in the history of our language, and Grant recommends relaxing with books that make great reading for both children and adults. Plus, are you the type of shopper who gets in and out of a store quickly? Or would you rather research that purchase in advance and then try before you buy? No matter where you fall on the shopping scale, psychologists have a name for you. And here's a wintry question: if you're panking something, just what are you doing? Plus, how to pronounce short-lived, a slang term for flirting, ass over teakettle, and an amusing 19th-century rant about young people's slang.

FULL DETAILS

We've talked before about those abbreviated baths that one listener refers to as a Georgia bath. Listeners showered us with calls about more names for those abbreviated cleanups, including birdbaths and kitty baths.

Before you turn up your nose at the expression ass over teakettle, know that our first evidence for this phrase is in William Carlos Williams' story "White Mule." A great idiom from a great writer. Other topsy-turvy phrases suggesting the same idea: head over heels and head over tin cup.

Complaining about young people's slang is nothing new. Browsing Google Books, Grant stumbled upon an amusing example from the 19th century called "The Age of Slang." Oh, my stars and garters!

If you pronounce short-lived with a long i, you're saying it correctly--at least by the standards of the 1600's. Today it's far more commonly pronounced with a short i, though both pronunciations are acceptable.

An ailurophile from Dallas, Texas, wrote us to say her cat has a hobby of poking around in the closet and finding hidden nooks to nap in, or as she calls it, closeteering. That's also a great term for generally digging around in the closet for stuff you haven’t seen in years.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski tests our knowledge of Latin by way of brand awareness this week with a game about brands like Lego, which takes its name from Danish leg godt, meaning "play well." As it happens, the Latin term lego might be loosely translated as "I put together."

Buck up, meaning toughen up or get it together, has a long history stemming from the days when travelling trunks had buckles on them that needed to be fastened. Over the years, variations like buckle down and buckle have meant both "to woo someone" and "to defy authority."

Those quickie baths commonly called bird baths are also known as pit-stops or, as one rather colorful grandma wrote us, a PTA. We'll let you figure out what that stands for.

A high school student called in to ask about a term his peers use for flirting: chopping. Ever heard it?

Spit baths are another common form of quickie baths, wherein a moist towel is used to wipe schmutz off a child's face. One fraternity member emailed us to say that when he was in college, over-spraying with cologne in lieu of a shower was called an SAE bath, named for a rival fraternity.

To pank, as in to pank down snow for skiing or pank down hair with Aqua Net, is a common term heard in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

Are you a satisficer or a maximizer? The former is the kind of person who runs into the store, takes a quick peek at the options, and gets out of there fast with the simple option that meets their basic needs. For an idea of what maximizers are all about, just read the Amazon reviews for home appliances and you'll get the idea.

It's that time of year when Martha and Grant share their book recommendations for the holiday gift season. This year, Martha gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up to Letters of Note, The Sense of Style, and Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English-Language Tourist’s Guide to Britain. Grant offers two Newbery Medal winners: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and The One and Only Ivan, about a gorilla who lives in a shopping mall zoo.

Words like discombobulate and blustrification are made-up words intended to sound fancy and Latinate. Discombobulate, in turn, inspired the Recombobulation Area in the Milwaukee airport.

The word hoodlum first pops up in the 1870's in San Francisco to refer to the exact thing it does now: guys who are up to no good. In the journal Notes and Queries, you'll find all kinds of discussion on hoodlum.

The French have a musical term for paperclip. They call it le trombone.

Martha Barnette gets a call from Martha Barnett, her Canadian tocaya who's missing an "e" at the end of her last name. On the Global News website, you can see that the name Martha, perhaps now an anomaly in Canada, peaked in popularity around the late 1950s.

After our episode that mentioned eponymous laws, we got a call from Darby Venza from Austin, Texas, who came up with this bit of wisdom, otherwise known as Venza's Razor: Whenever a garden hose or extension cord can catch on something, it will. True that.

This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: [email protected]

Phone:
United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673
London +44 20 7193 2113
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Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.

This week on "A Way with Words," it's all about terms of endearment: If your loved one is far away for a long time, you're probably tired of just saying "I miss you" over and over. For variety's sake, there are some creative alternatives to that phrase.  Also, what do you call the kind of friend you can go without seeing for years, then pick right back up with, as though no time has passed? Martha calls them her "Anyway friends," because they always resume the conversation with the transitional term "Anyway . . ." And if a characteristic is "ingrained and long-established," do you say it is "deep-seated" or "deep-SEEDED"? Plus, Cajun slang, burning platforms, cutting circumbendibus, under the weather, smell a mouse, yard sales on ski slopes, how to pronounce mayonnaise and won, and the curse of knowledge.

FULL DETAILS


If someone clapped out the rhythm of a song you knew, would you recognize it? It's pretty unlikely, given what's called the curse of knowledge—to the person with the song in their head, it's obvious, but you can't expect anyone else to hear it. This is among many fascinating concepts discussed in Steven Pinker's new book, The Sense of Style, which some are calling the new Strunk and White.

You may pronounce mayonnaise at least a couple of different ways. Although it's clear the word came into English via French, its origin is a matter of some dispute.

After we spoke a couple weeks ago about eponymous laws, a listener who works as a janitor gave us one of his own: Given any two rolls of toilet paper, the larger roll will get smaller before the smaller gets used up.

When something's just the beatin'est (or beatingest or beatenist), that means it's splendid, or puzzling. The term is most commonly heard in the South and South Midlands of the United States.

Pun alert: if you have a bee in your hand, what's in your eye? Beauty. Think about it.

Our Quiz Master John Chaneski leads us on a puzzle hunt, starting in a world capital that's a homophone for a type of music or food. (Hint: This Asian capital hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics.)

When we're not feeling well, we might say we're under the weather. But then, given that weather happens above our heads, aren't we always under it? The idiomatic phrase under the weather simply means the weather's affecting our bodies.

There should be a word for the kind of friend you can go without seeing for years, then reconnect with as though no time has gone by. Martha calls those her  "Anyway" friends, because they just pick right up with "Anyway . . . "

Skiing is fun until you wipe out, flinging two skis, two poles, and perhaps your lunch, all over the place. They call that a yard sale.

Of all the Cajun slang we've heard, "I'm gonna unclimb this derrick and give you your satisfy" is among the best of it. Cajun speech is unique for having retained elements of French syntax that even French-speaking Canada doesn't use anymore.

The burning platform is a trendy phrase in business at the moment, used for a crisis that demands immediate action. It refers to a guy on an oil rig that caught fire, and he had the choice of staying on the rig and facing certain death, or jump into the icy water on the slim chance that he might survive.

Steven Pinker's new book, The Sense of Style, which Martha cites among her all-time favorite books about writing, has just the right message: don't worry so much about the errors, because you'll make them, and if writing isn't fun, you're doing it wrong.

If the phrase I miss you feels drained of meaning after using it over and over, try this line from To Kill a Mockingbird as a substitute: "I wonder how much of the day I spend just callin' after you."

Deep-seated is the proper term for ensconced, rather than deep-seeded, although the confusion makes sense, given the imagery of seeds taking root.

Contrary to what your dictionary might tell you, there's no one right way to pronounce won.

Cutting circumbendibus is that thing you do when you spot someone you really don't want to talk to, so you dart across an alley or do anything to avoid saying hello.

Unlike smelling a rat, smelling a mouse isn't necessarily a bad thing—you could smell a mouse, thereby sussing out that someone has good news to share, or just a fun prank to play.

In French, there are colloquialisms translating to "the mayonnaise is setting" and "to make the mayonnaise rise."

This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: [email protected]

Phone:
United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673
London +44 20 7193 2113
Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771

Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate
Site: http://waywordradio.org/
Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/
Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/
Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/
Skype: skype://waywordradio

Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.

This week on "A Way with Words," it's all about terms of endearment: If your loved one is far away for a long time, you're probably tired of just saying "I miss you" over and over. For variety's sake, there are some creative alternatives to that phrase.  Also, what do you call the kind of friend you can go without seeing for years, then pick right back up with, as though no time has passed? Martha calls them her "Anyway friends," because they always resume the conversation with the transitional term "Anyway . . ." And if a characteristic is "ingrained and long-established," do you say it is "deep-seated" or "deep-SEEDED"? Plus, Cajun slang, burning platforms, cutting circumbendibus, under the weather, smell a mouse, yard sales on ski slopes, how to pronounce mayonnaise and won, and the curse of knowledge.

FULL DETAILS


If someone clapped out the rhythm of a song you knew, would you recognize it? It's pretty unlikely, given what's called the curse of knowledge—to the person with the song in their head, it's obvious, but you can't expect anyone else to hear it. This is among many fascinating concepts discussed in Steven Pinker's new book, The Sense of Style, which some are calling the new Strunk and White.

You may pronounce mayonnaise at least a couple of different ways. Although it's clear the word came into English via French, its origin is a matter of some dispute.

After we spoke a couple weeks ago about eponymous laws, a listener who works as a janitor gave us one of his own: Given any two rolls of toilet paper, the larger roll will get smaller before the smaller gets used up.

When something's just the beatin'est (or beatingest or beatenist), that means it's splendid, or puzzling. The term is most commonly heard in the South and South Midlands of the United States.

Pun alert: if you have a bee in your hand, what's in your eye? Beauty. Think about it.

Our Quiz Master John Chaneski leads us on a puzzle hunt, starting in a world capital that's a homophone for a type of music or food. (Hint: This Asian capital hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics.)

When we're not feeling well, we might say we're under the weather. But then, given that weather happens above our heads, aren't we always under it? The idiomatic phrase under the weather simply means the weather's affecting our bodies.

There should be a word for the kind of friend you can go without seeing for years, then reconnect with as though no time has gone by. Martha calls those her  "Anyway" friends, because they just pick right up with "Anyway . . . "

Skiing is fun until you wipe out, flinging two skis, two poles, and perhaps your lunch, all over the place. They call that a yard sale.

Of all the Cajun slang we've heard, "I'm gonna unclimb this derrick and give you your satisfy" is among the best of it. Cajun speech is unique for having retained elements of French syntax that even French-speaking Canada doesn't use anymore.

The burning platform is a trendy phrase in business at the moment, used for a crisis that demands immediate action. It refers to a guy on an oil rig that caught fire, and he had the choice of staying on the rig and facing certain death, or jump into the icy water on the slim chance that he might survive.

Steven Pinker's new book, The Sense of Style, which Martha cites among her all-time favorite books about writing, has just the right message: don't worry so much about the errors, because you'll make them, and if writing isn't fun, you're doing it wrong.

If the phrase I miss you feels drained of meaning after using it over and over, try this line from To Kill a Mockingbird as a substitute: "I wonder how much of the day I spend just callin' after you."

Deep-seated is the proper term for ensconced, rather than deep-seeded, although the confusion makes sense, given the imagery of seeds taking root.

Contrary to what your dictionary might tell you, there's no one right way to pronounce won.

Cutting circumbendibus is that thing you do when you spot someone you really don't want to talk to, so you dart across an alley or do anything to avoid saying hello.

Unlike smelling a rat, smelling a mouse isn't necessarily a bad thing—you could smell a mouse, thereby sussing out that someone has good news to share, or just a fun prank to play.

In French, there are colloquialisms translating to "the mayonnaise is setting" and "to make the mayonnaise rise."

This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: [email protected]

Phone:
United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673
London +44 20 7193 2113
Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771

Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate
Site: http://waywordradio.org/
Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/
Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/
Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/
Skype: skype://waywordradio

Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.

Creative communication in a noisy world! Writing a clever 140-character tweet isn’t easy. But you know what’s even more impressive? Working all 26 letters of the alphabet into just one sentence! The term for that type of sentence is pangram. Naturally, there’s a whole Twitter feed featuring accidental pangrams from all over. And: More people are giving themselves coffee names to avoid confusion when ordering that cup to go. After all, what barista is going to misspell Elvis? And what’s the difference between a purse, a handbag, and a pocketbook? Martha and Grant root around for an answer. Plus: center vs. centre, capital vs. lowercase letters, the origin of sommelier, and an alternative to showering when travelling in an RV. 

Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email [email protected]. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bathroom walls, missing graffiti, and social media. Where have all the cute quips on bathroom stalls gone? We wonder about the apparent decline of restroom graffiti. Are people saving their witticisms for Twitter and Facebook? And: If there were a universal law named in your honor, what would it be? Martha says in her case, “Barnette’s Law” would be “The lane you just got out of is the one that ends up going faster.” Always. Finally: Andre the Giant fancies a cocktail called “The American.” The recipe? Fill a 40-ounce pitcher with various liquors, then stir. Eeeeuww! Plus, using Master vs. Mister in correspondence, how fixin’ to became finna, the meaning of derp, and what happens when you take a forest bath in Japan.

Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email [email protected]. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices