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Podcast: A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over
Episode: Once Upon a Time - June 15, 2009
Description: [This episode first aired February 7, 2009.] Are fairy tales too scary for children? A survey of parents in Britain found that more than half wouldn't read them to their children before age five. Martha and Grant discuss the grisly imagery in fairy tales, and whether they're too traumatizing for kids. Also, when did 'dog food' become a verb? And does the word butterfly come from 'flutter by'? How did serialized melodramas come to be called soap operas? The answer has to do with the suds-selling sponsors of old-time radio shows. When a theater company...