Sometimes we stumble on ambiguous prepositions




That's What They Say show

Summary: A listener named Allen recently wrote to us about a confusing book review. He was reading the Toledo Blade, when he saw a review of Barbara Kingsolver's new novel "Unsheltered." Under a picture of Kingsolver was the caption "Barbara Kingsolver, one of America's hardiest novelists, stumbled on the lost history of [Mary] Treat." Allen says he immediately assumed the reviewer was not impressed with Kingsolver's book. When he read that Kingsolver had "stumbled on" the lost history, Allen thought