We’re looking forward to seeing you at the Philly Local Live Broadcast from World Cafe Live tonight (February 28). It’s the one year anniversary of Philly Local to the XPN airwaves (congrats!) and Helen has put together a terrific bill for the broadcast (listen live tonite at 8PM) featuring Birdie Busch, Codename, Caryn Lin, The Brakes and Hoots & Hellmouth. Here’s a preview of some of the lineup….

Codename are one of Philly’s up and coming jam bands. Check out this [...]

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I’m working on the Leicht Lunch for today Monday 2/27for the Noon hour…

taking some calls/emails/blogs/ for George Harrison – birthday wishes….

Just received a call from Tony in Philadelphia for“While my guitar gently weeps”….that’s now scheduled

Blog line now open….suggestions are welcome

thanks for your ideas

Helen Leicht

Today’s Word of the Day means hard to understand. It’s abstruse, derived from two Latin roots that mean to push away or conceal. You could as easily apply the word abstruse to lyrics as to mathematical calculations. It’s an adjective that popped into my head when I was eating strudel yesterday — strudel comes from the German word for whirplpool and is pastry with fruit or other filling rolled up in thin dough. Free association strikes again!Michaela [...]

For years, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame didn’t deem the Sex Pistols worthy of inclusion into its ranks. Now that the Sex Pistols have gained entry into the club, they’ve decided the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn’t worthy of their presence.

However, in a crude letter posted on its Web site Friday morning, the group made it clear that they would not be attending.

Full story here

One of the many phrases that came directly into English from French is today’s Word of the Day — idee fixe. It literally means fixed idea, and refers to something that dominates someone’s thinking, or the national consciousness, especially over a period of time. In other words it’s an obsession. Some idees fixes lead to positive change, others simply bedevil us. Either way, we have a linguistic tie to the French…consider haute couture, bon voyage, hors d’oeuvres, and so many [...]

As American Heart Month continues, another heart-related Word of the Day on the XPN Morning Show…ischemia. The word is derived from Greek and is related to the word styptic in derivation. Something that is styptic (like a styptic pencil used by bleeding shavers) stops the flow of blood. But that can be dangerous if it’s blood flowing through the arteries in your heart and it results in ischemia, or localized anemia or tissue damage.The American Heart Association [...]

If you haven’t had a chance to hear anything from our Featured Album this week, Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, then take a moment and download this song, Star Witness to sample the beauty of Ms. Case’s voice.

And going back to her previous live album, she delivers a very nice cover of Train From Kansas City originally done by The Shangri-La’s.

Happy listening.

Today’s Word of the Day on the XPN Morning Show comes directly from the Winter Olympics! The announcements of the bobsled competitions mention chicanes. The word comes from French and means a series of tight turns in opposite directions or an obstacle on a racecourse. Chicane can also mean chicanery, deception or trickery. Michaela Majoun

I hope you have the chance to osculate a lot today, every day for that matter. Osculate is from Latin, where os means mouth and a kiss is an osculum, and osculation is the noun form of today’s Word of the Day for Valentine’s Day on the XPN Morning Show.At 9:00 a.m. we start playing 88-1/2 favorite love songs.You can show your love for the station by helping to reduce our Winter Fund Drive, which starts tomorrow, to as few [...]

This is American Heart Month and tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. While thinking about the heart and its functions, I started to wonder how long the heart has been referred to as a ticker, usually with a negative connotation (“He has a bad ticker.”). Watches are also referred to as tickers, but that makes sense…at least before electronic watches, they ticked. Telegraphs machines and stock quote machines also make a ticking sound, and they’re referred to as tickers.The sound a heart [...]