Margaret from Huntsville, Alabama, says her mother used to tell her to hurry up by saying to get something done with a burning needle and a hot thread. The more common expression is with a hot needle and burning thread, meaning to do something “quickly” or in a “slapdash manner.” Bob Willis and the Texas Playboys used it that way in their 1952 recording of “A Red Hot Needle.” In parts of the Caribbean, hot needle burn thread alludes to something done in haste, as in That wedding got to be hot needle burning thread because the bride is already pregnant. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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