1235. This week, we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of the "Grammar Girl" podcast with something I've wanted to do for years: our first-ever live game show! We originally streamed Grammarpalooza live on YouTube back in September, and now we're bringing all the wordplay, laughs, and friendly competition to the podcast feed so everyone can play along.
Two teams of our favorite language lovers and fellow word nerds went head-to-head:
- The Cruciverbal Crusaders: Ben Zimmer (lexicographer and Slate crossword constructor) alongside Emily Moyers and Kyle Imperatore (teen librarians and hosts of the "Butter No Parsnips" podcast).
- Team MC Grammar: Jess Zafarris (author of "A Miscellany of Weird and Wonderful Facts" and co-host of "Words Unravelled"), Gabe Henry (author of "Enuf Is Enough" and host of pub spelling bees), and sociolinguist Valerie Fridland (author of "Why We Talk Funny").
Here's what they tackled:
- Fake Definitions: Deliberating over obscure, historical terms like "galactopoton," "curglaff," "snollygoster," and the Old English "uhtceare" to separate the real definition from the fakes.
- Rhyming Definitions: A fast-paced speed round matching rhyming pairs (from "cheese and breeze" to "ponder and wander").
- Playing Against the Audience: The teams go up against the live chat to see who can find the most unique words hidden inside the letters of the word CELEBRATION.
- Foreign Idioms: Decoding colorful phrases from around the world, from Sweden's "having your beard in the mailbox" and Germany's "that's sausage to me" to Italy's "every death of a pope."
A huge thank you to scorekeeper Holly Hutchings, game designer and marketer Rebekah Sebastian, audio maestro Nat Hoopes, gameshow veteran and producer Steven Schapansky, and all our wonderful Grammarpaloozian patrons who submitted questions and tuned in live.
A hearty thank you to the Keepers of the Commas one mysterious Immortal on Patreon. We appreciate your support!
- Larry Rosenblum
- Mahala Russell
- George Wilson
- Laurel Paul
- Linda Cox
- Birna Anna Björnsdóttir
- Kate Wade
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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
- Audio Engineer: Castria Communications
- Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
- Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
- Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
- Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
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