Today's Daily Dispatch

OUR TYPING TEST

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

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‘RAMP’ PARSE

Posted December 12, 2011

I listened to today’s show and the question about ‘ramp up.’ But the correct answer isn’t the one anyone gave: The word ‘ramp’ comes from the French verb ‘ramper’--to crawl. When you see a lion ‘rampant’, he is ‘crawling’ in the air with his feet. A ramp for someone who crawls rather than walks. A ramp rises gradually and gave us the word for raising or ‘stepping up’ an effort.

Deborah Warren of Andover, MA

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WE RUE OUR ANSWER

Posted November 15, 2011

I love “Says You,” so it pains me to say that you got an answer slightly wrong on the November 13 broadcast. The murderer in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is not a gorilla, as you would have it, but an orangutan, or “Ourang-Outang” Poe refers to the animal. The species of the offending creature is essential to the story, so I hope you will revisit and correct this question in a future show.

Thanks for your wonderful show!

Deborah Robbins of San Francisco, CA

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