While hiking in Colorado, Becca from Corinth, Texas, felt what she calls a kind of “pre-emptive nostalgia,” an appreciation sharpened by knowing the beauty would soon be gone. Is there a word for “feeling homesick for a place you haven’t yet left”...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski says that lately he’s been thinking a lot about Greece for some reason. So his puzzle this week is based on the Greek alphabet. Each clue’s blank must be filled by a word or phrase that sounds like the name of a Greek letter...
Oofless is an antiquated bit of British slang that describes someone temporarily short on cash. It’s from ooftisch, a Yiddish-derived term for “cash placed on the table,” from German auf Tisch. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Dylan from Charlottesville, Virginia, was rock climbing at his brother’s bachelor party when he heard other climbers called gumbies. Dylan figured that a gumby must be the kind of beginner or overconfident participant whose skills don’t...
In one episode of The Great Pottery Throwdown, a soothing British reality show that features amateur ceramicists, someone jokes about spending a night on the tiles. In this case, the phrase has nothing to do with crafting tiles from clay. A night on...
Maggie from Washington, D.C., heard a college friend from Eastern North Carolina and later a veterinarian referring to the panting of a dog as hassling. In the 19th century, the verb hussle was used in Southeast England to mean “wheeze or breathe...

