Pebble Picker (Rebroadcast) - 11 July 2016

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A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2016

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Right off the bat, it’s easy to think of several everyday expressions that derive from America’s pastime–including “right off the bat.” The Dickson Baseball Dictionary catalogues not only those contributions but also more obscure terms like “pebble picker,” and explains why a fastball is called a “Linda Ronstadt.” Plus, as more transgender people are publicly recognized, there’s some debate about which pronouns to use. And who in the world would give a one-star review on Amazon to … Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick? Plus, the plural of hummus, “tear the rag off the bush,” “to boot,” synesthesia, paper stretchers, wet washes, and the verb to podcast. 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 words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.8	You're listening to Away with Words to show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett.
0:34.0	And I'm Martha Barnett. The sport of baseball has given us so many words and phrases.
0:39.5	I mean, right off the bat, I can think of several. Right the bat for example is one but even if you're not a baseball fan you use baseball language every day right we talk about touching base with somebody or taking a rain check
0:52.0	hitting a home run stepping up to the plate, three strikes
0:55.8	and you're out, pinch hit. There's so many of those and there are many, many, many more in the Dixon Baseball Dictionary and every once in a while
1:05.6	I take down this volume by Paul Dixon, which is almost a thousand pages with all this baseball
1:11.0	language and just peruse it because it's got some really fascinating stuff in there and there's some terms that I think should be part of regular American speech that aren't that are in this book.
1:23.1	For example, Grant, do you know what a Linda Ronstadt is?
1:26.9	Mm, no?
1:28.9	You might say that that pitch was a real Linda Ronstadt,
1:31.9	and that is a reference to the 1971 song by Linda Ronstadt
1:36.4	blew by you.
1:37.4	Oh I'm coming back.
1:39.5	There, yeah, exactly because it blew by you.
1:43.3	Oh, ha ha!
	...

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