Thanks to Kay Horst S., Jeff O., Kate S., Margaret C., and an anonymous friend for donations through the PayPal button. Thanks as well to Alan H., who sent us the link to the BBC news article that inspired this edition. (2:12)

Writing through history; how are different generations taught to write? We talk about thoughts on this topic from the following sources: the BBC and scaredmonkeys.com. (3:09)

Music bumper from “Edgar Meyer Winter” by Shibboleth (14:19)

Calligraphy: the art of writing (16:02)

Song: “So I’m Writing” by Geoff Smith (20:49)

Rude Word of the Week: “chicken scratch” (25:47)

Music bumper from “Melancolica” by the Mauricio Cuburu. (30:38)

Handwriting today and the effects of technological innovation (31:20)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 44:57

size: 41.2 Mb

rating: G (We hope to inspire some young listeners to write a handwritten note to somebody sometimes.)

Thanks to Warren G., John P., Andreas B., Elin P. David W., Mary T., and Nancy E.-W. for donations through the PayPal button. Thanks also to Paul L., that Hawaiian word curmudgeon, for an email that inspired this show. (2:16)

Overused words of 2008; words that have lost their meaning from overuse; the most used words in English. Check out britannica.com. (6:19)

Music bumper from “Ockham’s Shaving Kit” by George Hrab (18:53)

Redundancies (20:55)

Song: “Misunderstood” by Carolyn Wonderland (24:07)

Rude Word of the Week: “hack” (27:33)

Music bumper from “Tell Me a Bedtime Story” by the Jay Lawrence Trio. (31:16)

Words and phrases that are commonly misused. (They bug us because we get them wrong! (32:06)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network and the Ioda Promonet

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 39:16

size: 36 Mb

rating: PG (Passing reference to prostitution in our Rude Word segment.)

Carolyn Wonderland
“Misunderstood” (mp3)
from “Miss Understood”
(Bismeaux Records)

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Jay Lawrence Trio
“Tell Me a Bedtime Story” (mp3)
from “Thermal Strut”
(OA2 Records)

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Thanks to Carlos in Spain, who recently helped us discovered a technical problem with our site and podcast. The Word Nerds now have a page on Facebook. (Dave briefly confuses Facebook with MySpace.) (2:15)

Morphing words: words whose meanings change over time. We looked at the journal Nature to learn something about change in meaning. George McNamee had an interesting blog post at the Encyclopedia Britannica blog recently on words that go away. (3:27)

Music bumper from “Court of Greedy Kings” by Val Davis (15:48)

Lost words: words that have fallen out of common use. To find a fantastic list of words nobody ever uses anymore, go to the Phrontistery website by Stephen Chrisomalis. (17:11)

Song: “Change” by Azure McCall (26:28)

Rude Word of the Week: “scurvy” (30:31)

Music bumper from “Under the Stairs” by Sonic Deviant. (33:43)

Rare words: words that are still current, but not commonly used. The Grandiloquent Dictionary has some great examples. (34:26)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network and the Ioda Promonet

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 39:03

size: 35.8 Mb

rating: PG (Our Rude Word segment quotes a rather scathing and rude insult from a Shakespeare play.)

Azure McCall
“Change” (mp3)
from “The Gift”
(Musefx Records)

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This week’s topic was suggested by Abbie G., a smart 9th-grader. Ironically, this show ended up being rated “R” and given an explicit tag. (Sorry, Abbie!) (2:08)

Dave and Barbara just attended the show awarding the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, honoring the late George Carlin. Carlin was a master of American satire. This show will air on PBS on April 1, 2009. (2:40)

Comedy as a culturally-specific phenomenon; the two careers of George Carlin (7:00)

Music bumper from “Baja Taxi” by Brain Buckit (18:59)

Carlin’s famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television”; Lewis Black and censorship at the Kennedy Center (21:15)

Is George Carlin the modern Mark Twain? (27:13)

Song: “Chiron Beta Prime” by Jonathan Coulton (32:18)

Rude Word of the Week: “genius” (35:07)

Music bumper from “Round One” by Evan Tate. (38:30)

Parody vs. satire: Mad Magazine, Weird Al Yankovic, and Saturday Night Live’s take on Sarah Palin (39:10)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 48:18

size: 44.2 Mb

rating: R (It is impossible to talk about the work of George Carlin without talking about “forbidden” words–and we use a couple of really taboo words several times. Once again, apologies, Abbie!)

George Carlin and his great “Modern Man” routine
(This routine is perfectly clean and a brilliant display of American English.)

Thanks to Alex Enkerli for an audio comment on MyChingo. (2:03)

This edition was inspired by an email from Paul Lawler (3:45)

Definitions of debate; what exactly constitutes a debate? (5:26)

Music bumper from “Arabesque” by Mauricio Cuburu (11:21)

Different types of debates for different purposes and in different forums; check out the Copley Debates website, as well as Trivium Pursuit and the Aberdeen Central High School site. We also discuss Robert’s Rules of Order.(13:26)

Song: “Support for My Argument” by Emma Wallace (25:11)

Rude Word of the Week: “filibuster” (28:55)

Music bumper from “Rebuttal” by The Working Title. (32:44)

When does an argument become a debate? A brief homage to Monty Python’s classic “Argument” sketch: “Just saying no isn’t an argument!” “Yes it is.” “No it isn’t!” (33:24)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network.

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 39:44

size: 36.4 Mb

rating: G (This entire discussion of debate is conducted in a civil and respectful manner.)

Thanks to Paul L., Smaran D., Mary M., Michelle M., Dolores B., and Peter D. for PayPal donations (1:52)

Emails from Paul L., Adam R., Maria C., and Anne J. Also, Evan Stone, who composed and played our closing theme music, played in Beijing for the Olympic marathon. (2:53)

Ambiguity defined: “Capability of being understood in two or more ways; double or dubious signification, ambiguousness.” Synonyms of ambiguous: enigmatic, equivocal, indeterminate, obscure, vague, unintelligible, dubious, double-entendre, ambivalent, uncertain (8:34)

Structural ambiguity: syntactic ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, and misinterpretation (such as mondegreens) (12:53)

Music bumper from “Whatever Stupid” by Ben Thomas (18:20)

Intentional ambiguity (19:11)

Song: “Whatever” by Natalie (25:21)

Rude Word of the Week: “whatever” (29:14)

Music bumper from “Telepop” by The Jerrys. (32:36)

Amusing intentional ambiguities: double entendres, jokes for adults buried in children’s shows (as done by Soupy Sales), and the mighty Groucho Marx (33:23)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network and Ioda Promonet

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 41:03

size: 37.6 Mb

rating: PG (Our song has a rude word for “poop,” and we talk about sexual double-entendres.)

Ben Thomas
“Whatever Stupid” (mp3)
from “The Mystagogue”
(Origin Records)

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Natalie
“Whatever” (mp3)
from “Rock Me”
(Bright Pink Music)

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Thanks to Marilyn O. for a PayPal donation (1:54)

Speech prosody: the rhythm, intonation, and grouping of sounds that are part of human speech. (2:17)

Music bumper from “Heartless” by Michael Burks (15:44)

Prosody in poetry and music (18:13)

Song: “Tongue Tied” by Hollins Steele (26:55)

Rude Word of the Week: “beyotch” (30:49)

Music bumper from “Necessary Rain” by Emile Westergaard. (33:40)

Characteristic systems of prosody in different languages; the prosody of presidential names (with thanks to Ian Ayres, writing in the Freakonomics blog of the New York Times) (34:14)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 42:38

size: 39.1 Mb

rating: PG-13 (The Rude Word is a prosodic modification of a really rude word.)

Dave thanks Brad and Naoko for donations, and Naoko, Ralsen, Asa, Jason and Hossein for their emails. (1:59)

This show was inspired by a game published by Brad Chase, Orijinz. We play a couple of rounds. (Thanks, Brad!) (6:51)

Music bumper from “Bongo Booty” by Vincent Van GoGo. (12:09)

Some of our favorite games for word nerds young and old (12:47)

• Scrabble
• Boggle
• Taboo
• Scattergories
• Tribond

Some good sources for online word games: East of the Web, Word Plays, and good old Yahoo (21:29)

Song: “The Mating Game” by Bitter:Sweet (22:37)

Rude Word of the Week: “nucking futs” and other rude Spoonerisms (25:57)

Music bumper from “Tonight” by Zach Ashton. (29:39)

Spoonerisms as wordplay, including a very rude running skit from RTL Samstag Nacht Live based on a Spoonerism (30:07)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network and Ioda Promonet

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 38:59

size: 35.7 Mb

rating: R (Our rude word is a variant of the ever-rude “F-word.” We close with reference to a German television skit that is based totally on the “F-word.”)

Bitter:Sweet
“The Mating Game” (mp3)
from “The Mating Game”
(Quango)

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Religious words as they are re-appropriated into everyday life. Thanks to EJ for suggesting this topic, and letting us know about the technology evangelists. (1:58)

Howard Shepherd tells us about an interesting blog at No Thirst Software. (9:16)

Music bumper from “Faith” by Greg Federico. (14:32)

Secular shifts in meaning of some religious words (15:20)

Song: “Bad Religion” by Jimmie Bratcher (19:20)

Rude words of the week: “holy cow,” “holy Moses,” “holy smoke,” and “holy crap” (22:46)

Music bumper from “God Frequency Live” by Without Malice. (27:16)

Phrases from religion that are re-purposed in common speech (28:00)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 35:17

size: 32.3 Mb

rating: PG (Not very rude, really–although one of our Rude Words suggests another ruder word.)

Emails and voice messages from Angy, Joel, MrGraphxFargo, Ken, and Ric (2:33)

Change in our lives, and the continuum of change and transition (5:51)

Music bumper from “Ockham’s Shaving Kit” by George Hrab. (14:24)

Ways of signaling change in language (15:12)

Song: “Lake Luck” by Wetbrain, featuring Ben Shepherd (23:20)

Rude word of the week: “waffle” (27:35)

Music bumper from “Baja Taxi” by Brain Buckit. (31:34)

Phrases and sayings about change (32:18)

Bumper and closing music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 40:03

size: 36.7 Mb

rating: G (Our Rude Word comes directly from the daily comic strips. Moreover, we’re trying to set a good example for our adult children.)

Dave points listeners to the Deutsch 4 Podcast. Dave recently met with Bob Wright of the Baseball History Podcast when Bob was in DC for a conference of food bank volunteers and workers. Today’s topic came from a thread on the forum started by bnt. (1:53)

Food metaphors in everyday language (6:57)

Music bumper from “Beautiful Food” by Edan (17:14)

Cooking metaphors; people as food; American diner slang (17:53)

Song: “Food Chain” by Ric Seaberg (24:58)

Rude word of the week: “eat shit” (29:45)

Music bumper from “Finger Food” by the Shook-Russo Quartet (33:19)

Insights from a non-American (Thanks, bnt!) (34:01)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network and IODA Promonet

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 38:41

size: 35.4 Mb

rating: R (This is probably the rudest Rude Word that Dave and Barbara have had so far.)

Download “Beautiful Food” (mp3)
from “Sprain Your Tapedeck”
by Edan
Lewis Recordings

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Download “Finger Food” (mp3)
from “Shook-Russo Quartet Featuring Greg Gisbert”
by The Shook-Russo Quartet
Summit Records

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Howard gives a shoutout to Henrik Hansen and to the Danish language-related podcast Sproghjørnet. (2:17)

Howard and Dave give an overview of auxiliary verbs, of which modal verbs are a subset. (3:17)

Music bumper from “Just Looking,” by The Jerrys (9:32)

Modal verbs and grammatical mood (10:11)

Song: “You Can Never Hold Back Spring,” by Tom Waits (15:49)

Rude word of the week: “wannabe” (18:14)

Music bumper from “Melancolica” by Mauricio Cuburu (22:08)

Modal verbs in languages other than English (22:49)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 30:31
size: 28 Mb

rating: G (We managed to talk about this without being rude.)

Dave announces the repair of our feed problem and reads listener email regarding Eilzüge. (2:20)

Dave and Barbara talk about the nature and timing of New Year’s resolutions and promises. (4:32)

Music bumper from “The New Year,” by Love = Action (11:58)

How people make resolutions (12:26)

Song: “I Hope This Year Is Better Than the Last,” by The Alice Project (18:38)

Rude word of the week: “wishy-washy” (21:08)

Music bumper from “Nada,” by Jaime Beauchamp (24:48)

Why people make resolutions; why the U.S. Congress makes resolutions instead of laws sometimes (25:28)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 32:59
size: 30.2 Mb

rating: PG (Our discussion is innocent; our featured song has humorous references to human foibles in the news.)

Dave’s recent favorites:

• The Word Nerds Discussion forum
• Online fora related to magic
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
• Baseball as America, by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
• Dai Vernon: A Biography, by David Ben
• The Secret Art of Magic, by Eric Evans and Nowlin Craver

Barbara’s summer reading:

• The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman
• Winter Wheat, by Mildred Walker
• The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

Howard’s books of summer:

• Skipping Towards Gomorrah, by Dan Savage
• A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
• The Students Are Watching, by Theodore R. Sizer

Music bumper from “The Beach 1969″ by Paul (11:56)

The functions of summer reading (12:33)

Song: “Summer Rain,” by COMEG (19:42)

Rude word of the week: “pulp” (23:15)

Music bumper from “Perfect Summer” by COMEG (28:08)

Social networking through reading (28:46)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone

time: 35:51
size: 24.6 Mb

rating: PG-13 (We actually don’t make any rude references; however, Howard talks about the Dan Savage column “Savage Love,” which is really only appropriate for adults.)

Tags: language, books

How to talk about the qualities of wine (3:50)

Interviews: John Fitter of Piedmont Vineyards and Winery and Rick Tagg of Pearmund Cellars talk about how they describe wine. (4:33)

Music bumper from by “Baja Taxi” by Brain Buckit (12:36)

Why wines are called what they are: we speak again with John Fitter and Rick Tagg. (15:05)

Dave and Barbara have been wine fans all their adult lives. (19:04)

Song: “Box of Wine,” by The Clintons (20:37)

Rude word of the week: “wino” (24:29)

Music bumper from “Necessary Rain,” by Emile Westergard (27:52)

Wine throughout history and literature: we looked at an interesting website from the State Library of South Australia (28:25)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Photo: Meriwether Vineyards at Pearmund Cellars

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 35:54
size: 24.7 Mb

rating: R (Our featured song is very amusing, but it does drop the F-bomb in the last verse, and its punchline is a sexual theme.)

Tags: language, wine

The specialized vocabulary of the theatre (5:51)

Music bumper from “Overreacting” by Brad Sucks (15:05)

Acting and performance in everyday life: the roles we play (15:29)

Song: “All the World’s a Stage,” by Away With the Fairys (19:15)

Rude word of the week: “chew the scenery” (23:27)

Promo for 7th Son, a podcast novel of suspense (28:04)

Music bumper from “Ockham’s Shaving Kit” by George Hrab (28:53)

Brushes we have had with famous actors. (For more wonderful stories of similar close encounters, check out episode #34 of Digital Flotsam.) (29:31)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 36:03
size: 24.8 Mb

rating: G (Although we used to be actors, we don’t talk about the seedy side of the theatre at all.)

Tags: language, theatre, barbara

Dave and Barbara, who are both musicians, talk about the importance of music in their lives. (4:23)

Music bumper from “Tonight” by Zach Ashton (9:11)

What music does to language: poetry, songs, musical theater, education (9:38)

Song: “Singing to Me,” by Robin Stine (14:39)

Rude word of the week: “tone deaf” (18:09)

Promo for The Sound of Young America (21:23)

The special language of music: re-purposed words in English and musical vocabulary in Italian (22:04)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 31:04
size: 21.3 Mb

rating: G (We talk about singing to our children when they were very young. Aw! Isn’t that sweet?)

Tags: language, linguistics, barbara, music

Dave and Barbara talk about their favorite new podcast, Washington Travel Cast, produced by their good friends, Julie and Mark. Join Julie and Mark on podcast walking tours of Washington DC and the surrounding area. (2:46)

Dave and Barbara respond to audio feedback from Jenny B. with a mondegreen from childhood. We follow up by quoting a great Word Nerds mondegreen, experienced by Carrie and originally mentioned in a comment thread. (4:00)Dave and Barbara, both Baby Boomers, talk about how their generation has shaped language. (6:55)

Music bumper from by “Telepop” by The Jerrys (10:09)

Being children, grandchildren, and parents: how these relationships color our perception of language (10:44)

Song: “21 Years,” by 77 South (18:11)

Rude word of the week: “square” (21:40)

Music bumper from “Essence” by Evan Stone (25:08)

Trend-watching: Barbara talks about trends that may have an impact on language and culture. (25:31)

Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network

Theme music by Kick the Cat

time: 32:00
size: 22 Mb

rating: PG (In our Rude Word segment we make passing reference to a marijuana cigarette, but otherwise it’s squeaky-clean.)

Tags: language, linguistics, barbara