Heads Up! It's a Meteor! (rebroadcast) - 21 November 2011

<p>SUMMARY<br /><br />"Well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit!" Martha and Grant talk about great catch phrases from old-time radio comedies. Also, why do we speak of a meteoric rise? Don't meteors plummet? What do you keep in a Fibber McGee drawer? Plus, myriad vs. myriad of, enamored of vs. enamored with, autocorrected text messages. And Martha shares a trick for eliminating those annoying verbal fillers like "um" and you know" from one's speech. <br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />They say it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for an autocorrected text message to be, well, correct. Listeners like Arnold share their funny Autocorrected text messages. And by Arnold, we of course mean Brooke.<br /><br />http://n.pr/fz6qI4<br /><br />Well, shut my mouth and call me Shirley! Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! A listener shares several of these humorous imperatives. Grant explains that the roots of these phrases probably go back to the 1940s. Phil Harris, the bandleader on Jack Benny's radio comedy, was known for using such colorful catchphrases. An early version was Cut off my legs and call me Shorty!<br /><br />http://bit.ly/exqCLY<br /><br />Martha shares a childhood misunderstanding sent in by a listener. Seems her three-year-old daughter confused the phrase "exposed to the elements" with "exposed to the elephants."<br /> <br />What do you call an expert speller? A "Words With Friends" enthusiast wants to know. Martha tells her that a great speller is called an orthographer or orthographist, from the Latin roots ortho- meaning "straight" or "correct", and -graph meaning "to write". A bad speller, on the other hand, is a cacographer, or as it's known among them, a kakagrifar. <br /><br />What is the term for that big inflatable play area you see at the park, or in your neighbor's yard? Is it a bouncy house? A jump? Grant asks listeners what they call this modern pumped-up playpen. <br /><br />Our multi-talented Quiz Guy Greg Pliska, served as musical composer for the television d