 Beginning with a personal anecdote of his struggles with his wife to find an appropriate name for their new baby daughter, he goes on to discuss a variety of topics, such as the increasing influence of conversational tics like "you know," the legacy of Yiddish words in American English, the question of personal favorite words, the effect that television shows have on the language, and the use of wordplay in country music.Nunberg examines how the meaning of particular words has changed, indicating shifts in societal values.He talks about how slang comes from a different sector of society than it once did, how words with obscure origins mysteriously become obsolete, how the word suburb has signified different social conditions through the ages, how portmanteau words have been on the increase in modern times, and how sarcasm has gradually displaced irony.