Fat Buttery Words - 6 October 2014

<p>This week on "A Way with Words": Teaching our children, and some advice for writers. Suppose your child is eager to tackle a difficult subject--ancient Greek, for example--but you know his reach exceeds his grasp? The challenge is to support the child's curiosity without squelching it entirely. And: In just a few years, the United States will be 250 years old. But if a 200-year celebration is a "bicentennial," what do you call a 250-year anniversary? Plus, amusing typos, lay vs. lie, book-bosomed, palaver, I'm so sure!, and more.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Aspiring screenwriters take note: A surefire requisite for breaking into the business has, and will likely always be, a love of words—fat, buttery words, like ones the Marx Brothers writer Robert Pirosh wrote about in his 1934 letter to MGM.<br /><br />It's been a while since Moon Unit Zappa and the Valley Girl craze slipped out of the popular eye, which is likely why the sarcastic quip, I'm so sure! had one listener tripped up.<br /><br />To get your fix of amusing typos like, "Illegally parked cars will be fine," and other errors that can't be mentioned on public radio, try the book Just My Typo.<br /><br />When you think about it, the saying I'm as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth  makes a good deal of sense. It goes all the way back to the 18th century and Jonathan Swift's Polite Conversation. <br /><br />All writers should heed the advice of Stephen King: "If you don’t have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write." <br /><br />Bored? Then this quiz is for you. Our Puzzle Master John Chaneski hits us with a word game where all the answers begin with "ho" or "hum."<br /><br />The difference between the verbs lay and lie has always been tricky to master, but Bryan Garner has some helpful tips.<br /><br />People who can't manage to go anywhere without a book might be afflicted with abibliophobia, or perhaps they're just book-bosomed. <br /><br />You're probably aware that massive is simply a slang term for