Jane in Tippecanoe, Indiana, was intrigued by a phrase she encountered while reading Kinky Friedman’sArmadillos and Old Lace. (Bookshop|Amazon). She remembers hearing the phrase crazy as a bedbug, and wonders about Friedman’s use of the phrase crazy as a Betsy bug. Both phrases refer to the insect behavior — the erratic movements of bedbugs and the stridulation, or shrill noise of Odontotaenius disjunctus. The latter also goes by such colloquial names as patent-leather beetle, bessy bug, and best bug. 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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