Pants in the Boot The Incomparable

Two of our panelists have Dutch origins and so we veer from our usual discussion of things related to English to dive briefly into salty licorice, Christmas holiday letters made of chocolate, and stroopwafel dipping....

We’re sweet on sugar, but many of our panelists don’t cotton to American candy—including the American participants. We discuss our favorite chocolate bars and confections, Glenn forgets the word for licorice briefly, seaside rock crops up, and we drop into dipping Tim Tams. The Surgeon General warns that this episode might exceed your sugar allocation for the year. This is our membership drive episode—become an Incomparable member! Sign up, support our show, and get access to exclusive podcasts! We’ve scheduled a special members-only live and then archived video session of Pants in the Boot in which we eat candies and...

Soda, pop, soda pop, soft drink, tonic, seltzer, and other fizzy drinks form the sweet backbone of our discussion as panelists talk about their childhood drinks, fountains and soda jerks, and a special beverage from Malta....

People who speak English with one accent trying to ape another region or country’s often sound ridiculous to the people of that other place—but convincing to those from their native land’s impression of what people in that other place sound like. Benedict Cumberbatch, just for instance. Confused? It’ll all make sense when we go to Glasgow....

There’s something about the way people in different countries makes those from others swoon. But there’s often a disdain for regional accents, particularly ones that have class markers. In a language with few accent marks above letters, we talk about the dulcet tones we like from around the world....

Hokey crokey, Batman! We start by talking about nonsense words—words that are filler and mean nothing in the language or dialect in which they’re used—but then transition to more meaningful matters, like the way in which aboriginal and native languages in various countries have made inroads into English. The movie Brave is mentioned and, of course, Johnny Vegas of St Helens....