Nick in Palm Springs, California, wonders about the phrase Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. Springing up the 1970s, the saying been there, done that is sometimes followed by any of several variants, including got the T-shirt; worn the T-shirt; got the T-shirt, going home; and have the T-shirt, won the trophy. These phrases are associated with getting a T-shirt to memorialize an event, such as an athletic competition or rock concert. Also, going back to the 1970s, tourist attractions sold T-shirts emblazoned with such sayings as My parents went to New York City and all I got was this stupid T-shirt. This is part of a complete episode.
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
Debbie from Crawfordsville, Florida, says that when she and her husband reach an impasse while working on something, they’ll say Let’s grok about it, which they use to mean “Let’s think about it.” Grok was coined by...
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