It's in My Wheelhouse - 7 March 2011

<p>SUMMARY<br /><br />What was your first word? Grant and Martha talk about how children acquire language. Also, if you say that something's in your wheelhouse, you mean that it's within your area of expertise. But why "wheelhouse"? And what does it mean to be "high as Cooter Brown"?<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Grant and Martha talk about new and unusual slang. If something has you puzzled or mystified, you're metagrobolized. If you're speaking voice sounds like grunting, you're said to be gruntulous. And what does spox mean? It's journalistic slang for "spokesperson." <br /><br />Some musicians are having a dispute over the word repeat: If the conductor says, "Repeat this section two times," how many times should they play the passage? Twice? Three times?<br /><br />You know those dull sports cliches like "We came to play" and "He left it all on the field"? They're called bromides. The hosts explain the connection between the tired platitude and the sedative called potassium bromide. The answer involves a book by the humorist Gelett Burgess called Are You a Bromide? You can see a copy here.<br /><br />http://bit.ly/gp0UqU<br /><br />In theology, epikeia involves observing the spirit of a law rather than the literal rule. Grant explains how in many cases, epikeia actually serves a greater good. Thomas Aquinas defends cases of epikeia in his Summa Theologica.<br /><br />http://bit.ly/icozsT<br /><br />In honor of the 2011 Academy Awards, Quiz Guy Greg Pliska offers his own version, The Oxcars. The trick is that the nominees for Best Picture at the Oxcars have the same titles as this year's real nominees for the Oscar, but with one letter changed. Example: What was this year's installment of the hit animated series about headline news? Why, that would be "Top Story 3."<br /><br />A Wyoming native asks about the origin of her father's term of approbation, good leather. Grant says it's probably from baseball, where good leather means "good fielding with a leather glove."<br /><br />Are we a nosy species? A lis