Andy, a listener in Fairbanks, Alaska, has always referred to a stiff neck as a crick, so he was surprised when he heard a high school football coach from Missouri complain of a creak in his neck and justified the pronunciation with creaky. In North...
In Australia and New Zealand, to get off your bike means to “lose your temper or become agitated”, and Don’t get off your bike is a way of saying “Calm down.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “In Australia...
Diane, a bridge player from Wilmington, North Carolina, asks about sitting with the bathtub, a phrase her friend uses for a lopsided game where one pair keeps getting the good cards. The phrase appears in newspaper columns about bridge starting in...
Carpe diem is often translated “seize the day,” but the carpe in that Latin saying can also mean “pluck” or “harvest.” The saying comes from a brief poem by the ancient Roman writer Horace. Addressing a woman desperate to know her fate, Horace uses...
Katherine from Allentown, Pennsylvania, remembers her grandmother teaching her to say Lucky lucky white horse, ding ding ding! whenever a white horse pulling a delivery wagon passed her house. After each ding, they were supposed to lick their left...
Christiane from Brunswick, Germany, says her family uses the phrase um den Pudding gehen or “to walk around the pudding,” a phrase that refers to taking a stroll around the block or neighborhood. This idiom is apparently unique to northern and...
