Curse of Knowledge

<p>This week on "A Way with Words," it's all about terms of endearment: If your loved one is far away for a long time, you're probably tired of just saying "I miss you" over and over. For variety's sake, there are some creative alternatives to that phrase.  Also, what do you call the kind of friend you can go without seeing for years, then pick right back up with, as though no time has passed? Martha calls them her "Anyway friends," because they always resume the conversation with the transitional term "Anyway . . ." And if a characteristic is "ingrained and long-established," do you say it is "deep-seated" or "deep-SEEDED"? Plus, Cajun slang, burning platforms, cutting circumbendibus, under the weather, smell a mouse, yard sales on ski slopes, how to pronounce mayonnaise and won, and the curse of knowledge.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br /><br />If someone clapped out the rhythm of a song you knew, would you recognize it? It's pretty unlikely, given what's called the curse of knowledge—to the person with the song in their head, it's obvious, but you can't expect anyone else to hear it. This is among many fascinating concepts discussed in Steven Pinker's new book, The Sense of Style, which some are calling the new Strunk and White. <br /><br />You may pronounce mayonnaise at least a couple of different ways. Although it's clear the word came into English via French, its origin is a matter of some dispute.<br /><br />After we spoke a couple weeks ago about eponymous laws, a listener who works as a janitor gave us one of his own: Given any two rolls of toilet paper, the larger roll will get smaller before the smaller gets used up.<br /><br />When something's just the beatin'est (or beatingest or beatenist), that means it's splendid, or puzzling. The term is most commonly heard in the South and South Midlands of the United States.<br /><br />Pun alert: if you have a bee in your hand, what's in your eye? Beauty. Think about it.<br /><br />Our Quiz Master John Chaneski leads us on a puzzle hunt, starting in a world