An Omaha, Nebraska, listener and wife have picked up the expression Bags not! from the Australian children’s show “Bluey.” The phrase is used to stake a claim by announcing one refuses to doing something undesirable, like change a diaper or take out the trash. The folklorists Iona and Peter Opie describe such phrases as part of the “code of oral legislation” by which children negotiate their rights with each other. This is part of a complete episode.
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
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