Cherry Bombs (Rebroadcast) - 4 October 2021

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A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An ornithologist says there’s a growing movement to change the name of a pink-footed bird currently called the flesh-footed shearwater. The movement reflects a growing understanding that using flesh-colored for “pink” fails to acknowledge the full range of human skin color. Plus, is hooligan an anti-Irish slur? Some people might perceive it that way, but originally the word itself simply referred to the name of a particular gang in London. Finally, book recommendations to keep our minds and hearts full: Joan Didion essays and a novel by Affrilachian poet Crystal Wilkinson. Plus, cherry bumps, al fresco, en plein air, frivol, logy, pigeon-toed vs. duck-footed, hankering, unbolted, a socially distanced brain game, and who licked the red off of your candy? Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: ⁠https://waywordradio.org⁠. Be a part of the show: call or text ⁠1 (877) 929-9673⁠ toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text ⁠+1 619 800 4443⁠. Send voice notes or messages via ⁠WhatsApp 16198004443.⁠ Email ⁠words@waywordradio.org⁠. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to A Way With Words, the show about language and how he use it.
0:03.8	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:05.0	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:06.4	We heard from Jean Gerber in Thetford, Vermont, who wrote to ask about the term cherry bumps.
0:12.4	She says it's what my family and friends called it when we swung hard and high in the swing
0:17.6	set and the whole swing set would lift up off the ground in the front.
0:21.9	And two of its four legs would lift a few inches and then bump back into the ground.
0:27.1	And this was in the 1960s in Cleveland.
0:30.3	And she says, I have no idea why we called it cherry bumps, but we all knew what it meant.
0:34.9	Oh, yeah, the kind of the backyard rusty swing set, right?
0:39.1	That wasn't really bolted down or wasn't set in concrete?
0:42.6	Yeah.
0:43.6	And the ones you always tried to do the loop to loop where you went all the way around and never
0:47.7	quite made it.
0:48.5	Oh my gosh, that, yeah.
0:51.2	Yeah, I had some bruises to show for that.
0:53.4	So that's bump B-U-M-P, not B-O-M-B, right?
0:57.7	Right.
0:58.5	But I have seen some people kind of, I'm not 100% sure it's connected, but
1:02.6	connected to cherry bumps, like the little round red fireworks that you buy near independent today.
1:08.8	The one that makes that really satisfying explosion.
1:10.8	Right.
	...

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