Melissa in Charlotte, North Carolina, remembers her grandfather would describe something excellent as  better than snuff, but not near as dusty. The snuff in this case refers to finely ground smokeless tobacco. Variants include finer than snuff, not near as dusty and better than snuff, gooder than taters, as well as gooder than taters, better than snuff, and gooder than snuff, sweeter than a Sunday hymn. All of these arose at a time when snuff was regarded as a healthy, fashionable stimulant, an idea echoed in phrases like up to snuff. http://waywordradio.org

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Miley in The Dalles, Oregon, asks about going gunny bags meaning to “break down” or “go haywire.” Her mother uses this expression, but has no idea where she picked it up. The term gunny sack, referring to a bag made of coarse material such as jute, comes from an East Indian term meaning “sack,” so gunny sack is a pleonasm that means “sack sack.” The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles includes an entry for gunny-bag meaning to “beat out a fire with gunny sacks,” suggesting frantic improvisation. The mystery writer Judith Jance uses the term go gunnybags quite frequently in her work, and since Miley’s mother is a big fan of Jance’s novels, it’s quite possible that’s where she picked up the phrase. http://waywordradio.org

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Nikki in Charlotte, North Carolina, shares the story of a man who casually told passersby You dropped your pocket, prompting them to check for something that wasn’t there in the first place. That silly saying reminds her of playing pool and trying to distract an opponent about to shoot with Hey, do you breathe in or out when you take your shot? Other “made-you-look” sayings include Your sock is untied and Your epidermis is showing. The folklorists Iona and Peter Opie collect many similar kinds of sayings in their classic volume The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (Bookshop|Amazon). http://waywordradio.org

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While studying psychology in West Lafayette, Indiana, Sarah has wondered whether it’s correct to speak of a treatment’s efficacy or its effectiveness. In research and professional settings, efficacy describes how well a treatment works under controlled conditions, such as clinical trials, while effectiveness addresses how well it performs outside of that context, where circumstances can vary. In everyday conversation, though, this distinction is less important. http://waywordradio.org

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Knitters are creating temperature blankets, also known as weather blankets, by assigning colors to daily temperatures and stitching them into finished pieces. Makers involved in The Tempestry Project extend the practice by representing the weather from the past in their fiber art, crafting blankets, scarves, and other items that preserve climate records from previous decades. http://waywordradio.org

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Stefan Fatsis has made a career out of participatory journalism. For his book Word Freak (Bookshop|Amazon) about the world of competitive Scrabble, he became an expert player. For A Few Seconds of Panic. : A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL (Bookshop|Amazon), he trained for a season as a placekicker for the Denver Broncos. So it’s perhaps not surprising that, given his passion for dictionaries, he embedded himself as a lexicographer-in-training at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, writing or revising definitions for such words as microaggression, alt-right, and burkini. He writes about this in UNABRIDGED: The Thrill of (and Threat to) The Modern Dictionary (Bookshop|Amazon). http://waywordradio.org

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In the thriller Down Cemetery Road starring Emma Thompson, a character uses the Britishism safe as houses, meaning “quite safe,” an expression thought to derive either from the sturdiness of a house or the sense of real estate as a secure investment. http://waywordradio.org

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A listener named Lita who grew up in Cuba shares her favorite Spanish idiom for “working hard”: sudando tinta, or literally, “sweating ink.” http://waywordradio.org

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The Great Passage is an anime about a young man who steps up to take over a project to edit a new dictionary, eventually becoming a full-fledged lexicographer. http://waywordradio.org

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In a nod to The Family Guy’s character Stewie Griffin, the A Way with Words family’s Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle about voiceless labial-velar approximants. Inspired by Stewie’s habit of pronouncing Cool Whip as “Cool Hwip,” John has come up with several two-word phrases containing one word that begins with W and second word beginning with WH. For example, if the clue is I was in a contest, and I made a very high -pitched sound with my lips, and that earned me first place, what’s the two-word answer? http://waywordradio.org

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On this episode of Answers for Eóin we look into the difference between UVA and UVB rays!

More information here from the University of Iowa: https://uihc.org/health-topics/what-difference-between-uva-and-uvb-rays

Image is CC-BY 2 from Boris Kasimov and can be accessed here:https://www.flickr.com/photos/kasio69/29010351357/

What is the difference between UVA and UVB rays?

Answers for Eóin

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