On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is fresh air.
I'm David B.
And Cooley.
Roger Corman, the influential film director and producer, died last week.
He was 98 years old.
Today we'll listen back to an interview with him and with several people whose careers he fostered and encouraged.
We'll also feature an appreciation from critic at large John Powers.
Roger Corman's legacy includes some delightfully enjoyable low budget movies, but he's best known for launching the careers of a long list of soon to be famous writers, directors and actors.
Richard Matheson and Robert Towne wrote screenplays for early Corman films.
Directors who began under his wing included Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme and Francis Ford Coppola.
And his movies low budget quickies embracing such genres as horror, monster movies, gangster films, westerns, Sci-Fi and biker and prison films showcased a wide range of actors, from old pros like Vincent Price and Peter Lorre to a bunch of then unknowns like Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson.
In 1960, Corman directed the Little Shop of Horrors, which featured a young Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient.
You know, most people don't like to go to the dentist, but I rather enjoy it myself, don't you?
I mean, there's such, there's a real feeling of growth, of progress when that old drill goes in.
I mean, I'd almost rather go to the dentist than anywhere, wouldn't you?
Yeah.