Listener Margaret Magnee from San Francisco, CA writes:
In today’s show you misidentified the pintail duck as a Smee. It’s actually spelled Smew. Love your show.
You say Smew and we say Smee! We are all correct. There are two names for the pintail — both Smee and Smew. This came from a round of “crossed words” in honor of Will Shortz and the 75th Anniversary of the NYT Crossword puzzle.
Listener Uri Geva writes:
Recently the program presented a single-word oxymoron. The participants could not come up with any more single-word oxymorons.
I think the two meaning of “Swear”
(1) take an oath and (2) curse are contradictory.
Keep up the good work!
Long time fan and listener Stéphane Braün of Nashville, TN writes:
In this week’s quiz (a “previously enjoyed” episode, I believe), panelists were asked to name a city whose name could be broken up into three English words, without rearranging the letters. “A major Asian city” was also offered as a hint. The given answer was Singapore. I would also like to submit Bangalore:
Bang-a-lore
Ban-gal-ore
Listener Eric Jackson from Boston, MA writes:
There was a question asked about state universities that don’t use the state’s name in their title. I believe the question suggested there is only one such university. I immediately thought of Ball State in Indiana. Some others came to mind – two such are infamous, Kent State and Jackson State. There is another university with historical significance in New Jersey, Rowan University which used to be called Glassboro State.
We were over-run with mail on this one. Test yourself – make a list of your own – it won’t take long!
Listener Melissa Hellman from Oswego, NY writes:
As long as I’m dreaming, how about doing a show in Oswego, where I live, in the summer or fall? As you may know, we have glorious lakeside sunsets, and there may be a suitable venue either on campus or elsewhere in town. And if you come before mid-October, it’s both before the NCAA D3 hockey season starts and unlikely to snow. I understand why you might not want to visit this time of year.
Listener Diana Botkin from Nashville, TN writes:
Today we heard your program where Barry Nolan was back on the panel. We missed the name of the man that was hosting in this instance. We listen often and enjoy the challenge of playing along with the panelist…
…We also would like to have you again in Nashville. We met Richard Sher and the whole crew the first time that they came here. When we are able and in town we volunteer at WPLN our local NPR station here in Nashville. We look forward to having you back in our area.
After 21 years on the air, our cast continues to grow. Gregg Porter is the voice you heard. Gregg’s bio can be found on our Facebook page as well as Who’s Who on our website. He has been playing for us as a regular substitute – so, we thought we’d give him a chance at the lectern and give Barry a chance to play the game he loves.
During our Valentine Special – we invited listeners to solve a metapuzzle in a round penned by our own Arnie Reisman. Karen and Helen were the first to respond through “listener feedback” – many of the our fans in the live audience sent in their guesses within minutes… Our hearts go out to all of you for your contributions.
Listener Karen Connelly of Des Moines, WA writes:
You had a thread of romantic songs for Valentine’s Day, and there was another thread running through them. It was musicians who’ve died in 2016.
Listener Helen Waters of Jamaica Plain, MA writes:
Common thread for last game – songs of love (or something like that): All artists died in 2016. Says You is my favorite radio show! I’m hoping to get to a taping next time you’re in town. Keep up the stellar work!
There is a very tiny effect on one’s weight from the lunar tidal force, but…this effect has absolutely nothing to do with the chemical composition of the human body. The peculiar idea that tidal forces have some kind of special affinity for salt water is completely false. Like any other gravitational effect, tidal forces affect mass, independent of its chemical composition.
In fact, there are 9 such performers. (I only knew of 3 others — Anne Bancroft, Yul Brynner, and Rex Harrison), but hooray for the internet.
Interestingly, Joel Grey is now the only LIVING actor with this accomplishment.
- José Ferrer, CYRANO DE BERGERAC (Cyrano: 1947 Tony, 1950 Oscar)
- Shirley Booth, COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA (Lola: 1950 Tony, 1953 Oscar)
- Yul Brynner, THE KING AND I (The King of Siam: 1952 Tony, 1956 Oscar)
- Rex Harrison, MY FAIR LADY (Henry Higgins: 1957 Tony, 1964 Oscar)
- Anne Bancroft, THE MIRACLE WORKER (Annie Sullivan: 1960 Tony, 1962 Oscar)
- Paul Scofield, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (Sir Thomas Moore: 1962 Tony, 1966 Oscar)
- Jack Albertson, THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES (John Cleary: Tony 1965, Oscar 1968)
- Joel Grey, CABARET (The Master of Ceremonies: Tony 1967, Oscar 1973)
- Lila Kedrova, ZORBA THE GREEK (Madame Hortense: 1964 Oscar, 1984 Tony)
(Kedrova is the only person to win an Oscar for a role followed by a Tony for the same role, instead of the other way around).
Thanks for your great show!
Diane Silver
Asheville, NC (where, by the way, you should TOTALLY come do a show!)
Thank you to listener Richard from MA for correcting us!
Today’s opening question, about grammatical “mistakes” in popular songs, was the worst I’ve ever heard on the program. It propagated the false idea that the normative or prescriptive approach to English grammar provides a guide to speaking correctly. I’m sure other linguists will chime in on this issue, but I could not let one panelist’s remark get by without a comment. The panelist (I didn’t catch her name) said that sentences like “It’s me” would be impossible in other European languages. In fact it’s been several centuries since speakers of French would say “Ce suis je” or “C’est il” instead of the long-since normal “C’est moi” or “C’est lui.” English thus followed the natural development from “It is I” to “It’s me,” despite the best efforts of prescriptivists who believed that English should be guided by the rules of Latin grammar with its predicate nominatives, etc. And unless you don’t believe in poetic language, speaking of “lonely nights” is perfectly good English.