Going To Hell In A Hen Basket: Modern Malapropisms

WUNC | By Will Michaels,

Frank Stasio

Published October 8, 2015 at 12:07 PM EDT

Robert Rubin is a professor of English at Meredith College and the author of 'Going to Hell in a Hen Basket.'

Host Frank Stasio talks with professor Robert Rubin about modern malapropisms

Misusing words and phrases drives the language purists among us crazy, but for English professor Robert Rubin, malapropisms are not only amusing but examples of how language evolves.

His new book, "Going to Hell in a Hen Basket: An Illustrated Dictionary of Modern Malapropisms" (Flatiron Books/2015), is an exploration of the newest ways that we say what we do not mean.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Rubin, an English professor at Meredith College, about modern malapropisms.

Will Michaels

Will Michaels started his professional radio career at WUNC.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio