Wow, I forgot about Ben Franklin..It was the only place to buy penny candy and Archie Digests! I assume Walgreens bought it, probably a subsiderary of Walmart. How sad.

O.k., forgive my stupidity but do you guys have an mp3 player (a la wimpy, etc.) tucked away on this site? Yes, I can (and do) subscribe via itunes. Yes I know I can download to media player too. Yes I have you all live bookmarked in firefox. But sometimes I just wanna click one button, have a player pop up and surf while I listen to you wacky kids banter away for 30-40 minutes. What am I missing oh bearded nerdy wonder....and Betsy?

Hey, wasn't there supposed to be a breast-feeding plate story in here somewhere?

W isn't a vowel. is it? I've never heard that until today!

Englishforum.com says Y and W are known as semi-vowels...hmmm you learn something new everyday:)
Croncast...entertaining..and educational...who knew:)

@BCG - we do. it is on the "home" page just to the right of the most recent podcast.

not trying to hide it. but now that you mention it, i should probably move it around.

@DKH - yep, but we got rolling. coming for TFF tomorrow.

@Jeanie - good job putting web to use. i need to learn how to turn one of these boxes on and get connected!

maybe you could be our official fact finder for our lunacy and half-baked thoughts?

Bah. Semi-vowels don't count. Show me a word with all consonants and a w as the vowel, and then we have a vowel. You can do that with y. "Try", for example.

My English teachers would have beaten within an inch of my life had I tried to use a W as a vowel. Given, I was in school when dinosaurs roamed the earth (i.e., slightly before Kris and Betsy), so perhaps the rules have changed. I suspect, however, that when E drops the "w is a vowel" knowledge at school his teacher will send him home to ask his parents what they are smoking.

ah so - thing is when I find your newest post/show via live bookmark it takes you direct to the just one show page where there is no player.

thanks for settin' me straight

called my polish wife. asked her if her parents or aunt called her with the bad news. she paused and said what bad news. i said Bobak's grocery store is gone. she was not thrilled that i worded it that way- she thought that some one was hurt. o well. Bobak's grocery store had awesome restaurant buffet. sad to hear it is gone.......

streaming is not a high priority of podcaster. the goal is to get subscription as it keeps people coming back as it is automatically done for you. thats why podcasting industry has grown over streaming radio.

W is not a vowel. While Y can act on its own as a vowel (hence the "sometimes Y"), W cannot.

The day they start teaching that W is a vowel is the day I move my kids to private school!

BTW, J is a semivowel too so if we're throwing them into the mix it should be "A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y, W, and J."

I need to switch to decaf.

I had to go online to look up "mimetic". It just sounds like you made it up! I saw the definition, but I still can't accept that it's real. And "W" is a "sometimes" vowel? Huh? I can't think of a single word that uses W as a vowel.

After more thought I think it should be: "A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y...and W and J on alternate Tuesdays."

Seriously, I'm not buying W as a vowel. Maybe in Norse or Gaelic, but not freakin' English.

Just curious Kris,if you could have your dream job, what would it be??? Have you ever worked in radio or TV?

Watching "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader." The question is, "How many consonants are in the word 'vowel'."

The fifth-grader correctly answered THREE.

The adult got it wrong, by the way. She's an art student.... She thought the proper spelling of the word was "voul."

Hippy! Flafoo needs a hippy catagory. I'd love to see what kris puts together for that one!

W.I.N.A.V.!!!!!

English has more vowel sounds than we have letters to represent them. "W" gets into a gray category because it is combined with "real" vowels to represent some of these sounds. Examples: threw, new, sew, cow, snow etc. That's why linguists call it a semivowel. Today linguists tend to focus on how things are used when deciding what they are. When it is used this way, English treats the two letters as one vowel sound (example: rules for determining syllable boundaries).

If you felt strongly about this topic, you should check out the who/whom debate on an early season of The Office.

W is a vowel the word cwm
(koom). noun
a steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain; may contain a lake.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cwm