Hokudai/Cast

Hokudai/Cast 284: Wash!

Wash up, wash out, wash my hands of, and come ...

Wash up, wash out, wash my hands of, and come out in the wash. These are uses of the word wash.   Wash means to clean, usually with water. Wash up has two meanings: clean & fail at something. Wash out means to fail at something,...

Hokudai/Cast 283: Waiting in Space

Three quick words that are related: Wait Weight Weigh Wade ...

Three quick words that are related: Wait Weight Weigh Wade (and Wading) Wait means don't leave, don't move. Weight is a noun while weigh is a verb. How much do you weigh? Is rude but correct. How much is your weight? Is also rude but...

Hokudai/Cast 282: Valentine's Day?

Lupercalia was a Roman festival celebrating fertility, love, cleansing the ...

Lupercalia was a Roman festival celebrating fertility, love, cleansing the city of evil spirits. Lupercalia incorporated another festival called Februalia. Februalis was a very old Roman festival celebrating fertillity and cleansing the city of evil...

Hokudai/Cast 281: First Lines

The first lines of novels. Why? Sometimes they show up ...

The first lines of novels. Why? Sometimes they show up in other places, like movies or TV shows. It is always nice to recognize words or phrases that come from famous novels while watching TV or movies. Right? Dystopia and Utopia are two of the three...

Hokudai/Cast 280: February Third

Setsubun no Hi, Groundhog Day, Paul Auster, and Gertrude Stein ...

Setsubun no Hi, Groundhog Day, Paul Auster, and Gertrude Stein all have something to do with February 3. Spring starts on February 3rd in Japan with Setsubun no Hi or, in Japanese, 節分の日, which means Separating the Seasons. Also on February...

Hokudai/Cast 279: Novel Levon

New or Gnu? They are pronounced the same but gnu ...

New or Gnu? They are pronounced the same but gnu is an animal that lives in the savanah of Africa. They are both in our Word/Play along with Novel and Unique. Novel means new and unique and a book of nonfiction   Novel also shows up in your...

Hokudai/Cast 278: Hamburgers & Demonyms

Words in Word/Play include: endonym exonym denonym homonym pseudonym anonymous ...

Words in Word/Play include: endonym exonym denonym homonym pseudonym anonymous Confused History is about hamburgers. Created in the US, named after a city in Germany, popular for over 120 years: The Hamburger ~ synonmous with...

Hokudai/Cast 277: Verbage and Potatoes

Verbs are always nice to know when learning a new ...

Verbs are always nice to know when learning a new language. Nouns are good, too, but you can always draw a picture of an object; not so verbs. Pantomime is good but knowing the verb is even better. Today I will present you with a bunch of verbs read...

Episode 276: Inconsistency

We have been Inconsistent in putting up new shows. In ...

We have been Inconsistent in putting up new shows. In fact, being Consistent is not one of our strengths. Something that does give us strength, however, are sandwiches which we discuss in our New Feature: Confused History. In Word/Play you will...

Hokudai/Cast 275: March!

Rabbits, Walks, & Madness