From Book Smart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language. I'm Mike Volo

with Bob Garfield, and today we're going to play a game. Here's how it works. I will give you,

Bob, four words, each of which can follow the word perfect to make a common phrase.

So, for example, if I were to say pitch, that would mean the phrase is perfect pitch.

I'll give you four such words, pitch is not one of them, in alphabetical order.

Your job is to put the phrases in chronological order according to when they first appear, as far as we know,

in the written record.

Is this one of those things where, if I get it wrong, I get an electroshock?

And what we ascertain at the end of it is that you're just perfectly willing to give me

a psychological experiment.

Yes, this episode is sponsored by Yale University.

All right.

So after you put them in what you think is a chronological order, you can, if you wish,

put an approximate year or decade next to each one.

That's a little bit harder, but go for it.

Yeah, a little bit harder.

Before we proceed with my failure, and it will be one, I think we should probably point out

that this is a bonus episode attached to our previous episode about the word perfect.

That's right.

You have your pencil and paper ready?

I do.

All right.

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