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Posted September 02, 2008
THERE IS NO QUESTION! GET IT RIGHT!!!! My father, Harold Sonnichsen, invented Elmer’s Glue while working at Dupont in Niagara Falls during WWII. We have a copy of his patent. His specialty was adhesives and most modern ones are still based on his formulas. He MEANT to invent a glue. He also gets credit for rayon strapping tape and worked on duct tape for the army.
Susan E, Brown of North Haverhill, NH
Posted August 11, 2008
IN RESPONSE TO OUR CHALLENGE FOR TYPISTS EVERYWHERE:
Kevin Bryan writes: I’ve found “dismantlement” (or for a tie, but maybe not in some dictionaries “antiendowment”, “antisudorific”, “autotoxicosis”, and “neurotoxicity")- the longest words you can type with alternating hands on a QWERTY keyboard.
Kevin Bryan of Exter, RI
Posted August 08, 2008
I listen to “Says You!” on WFSU here in Tallahassee. On last week’s show, Mr. Sher attributed “man is the measure of all things” to Pythagoras. However, in Plato’s Cratylus and Theaetetus, Plato credits the statement to Protagorus. It is said to have come from Protagoras’ “book” On Truth. Also, for the greatest of all confirmations, when you Google the phrase, it is also attributed to Protagoras.
THANK YOU, N.B. You were the first of many who corrected our error.
N. B. Jones of Tallahassee, FL
Posted July 31, 2008
This past week, you had a word for which the definition was the act of parking in a parking lot so that the front of the car is facing out so that you don’t have to back out of the parking space. I never realized there was a work for this; I frequently do this especially lately because the reverse gear on my Camry no longer works. However, I have forgotten the word. I am one of those people who easily forgets words and names unless I see them printed out. Maybe there’s a word for people like me.
TO LARRY AND THE HUNDREDS WHO WROTE: It’s not a word- rather a neologism from addictionary.org. The term was ‘sprew,’ and we feel it’s well on its way to authenticity!
Larry Bathgate of Mill Valley, CA
Posted July 21, 2008
Kilderkin was the mystery word on last week’s show from Syracuse NY. It was defined as a half a gallon. Actually, it is a measure of beer, of a half barrel, each barrel of beer containing 36 gallons. So a kilderkin is a cask containing 18 gallons of beer.
William the Coroner, Cleveland, OH
Posted April 13, 2008
On the show last week, you asked what famous LA resident was suggested by the phrase: Facial crease caused by frowning, perhaps. I think Groucho Marx fits better than Shirley Temple (Surly dimple).
Ellen Spertus of San Francisco, CA
Posted March 19, 2008
You asked for more information on Joseph Spinney, mayor of Fresno, CA for only 10 minutes. I found a reference online from a book by Catherine Morison Rehart, copyrighted, The Valley’s Legends & Legacies: In 1892, Craycroft was elected to serve the city of Fresno as a member of the board of trustees. In 1893, one rather famous meeting of this august body took place. Joseph Spinney was elected president of the board, made a speech thanking the members for electing him, resigned his post, and nominated C.J Craycroft for the position. The whole thing took just ten minutes. Craycroft was elected president of that board, and as such, was the mayor of Fresno, serving for eight years. Apparently the president of the city board of trustees is the de facto mayor. So this is how Spinney was only mayor for ten minutes!
Carol Lavoie of Bellingham, WA
Posted February 01, 2008
Regarding Fifth Disease: You were SO close, but not fully accurate. Fifth Disease is not #5 in a list of common childhood illnesses, but of childhood illnesses with a red rash. The First Disease was Measles,or Rubeola; the Second was Scarlet Fever, a Streptococcal rash; The Third was German measles, Rubella, which was not recognized as being a different disease from the Second until the early 20th century (by German scientists). Fourth Disease is now a mystery. At one time called Duke\\\’s Disease or Boston Exanthem, contemporary pediatric infectious disease specialists cannot discern exactly what illness our forebears were describing. Some suggest a Coxsackie viral syndrome, others a rash caused by a Staphyllococcal infection . (Mumps and Chicken pox, which you named, were never part of this list; but they do deserve mention because they, along with Measles and Rubella, are now preventable with routine immunization!
Anne Thiele, M.D. of Birmingham, AL
Posted January 27, 2008
My son and I are regular listeners to your show, and always enjoy it. I am afraid that I have to quibble with your definition of DORY from this morning during the What is the Difference segment. You mentioned that a dinghy is carried aboard a larger vessel while a dory is not, and yet the origin of the dory- which you correctly noted as a flat-bottomed, flared-sided boat used for fishing- is as a small boat carried aboard a mother ship, most typically a schooner, which would take a number of dories stacked on deck out to the fishing grounds where they would launch them for fishermen to handline from. This early use played a role in determining the dory shape, for their flared sides and removable thwarts allowed them to be nested on the schooner deck. NOTE: Mr. Summers is the Chief Curator of the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY
John Summers of Clayton, NY
Posted January 13, 2008
A few weeks ago you gave a cowboy derivation for: He will do to ride the river with. Born in the great north woods of Wisconsin, I beg to differ. This is a lumberjack term. Riding the river on the spring log drive was a task undertaken by only the most agile, able and brave lumberjacks. The term is high praise. The term may have migrated to the cowboy population, since some lumberjacks took jobs herding cattle during summers, when nobody logged in the mosquito infested piney woods.
Tim Nyhus of Mars Hill, NC
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