In English, the tip of the iceberg refers metaphorically to a small visible part of something immense. In Afrikaans, there’s a phrase suggesting the same thing that translates as “the tips of the hippo’s ears.” This is part of a complete episode...
A listener in Colby, Wisconsin, says that growing up, she called a drink with ice cream in root beer a black cow. But when she moved to Wisconsin, she found that the locals called the same beverage a root beer float. The era of drugstore fountains...
A Vietnamese phrase suggesting the impossibility of something occurring translates as “when the loach lays eggs at the top of the banyan tree,” a loach being a bottom-dwelling fish. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “When the...
Lydia in Portland, Maine, was texting someone about having seen an opossum, but wasn’t quite sure how to write that out with the article. Is it a or an opposum? Like most Americans, she drops the initial unstressed syllable, making it sound like...
In Italian, a giacca civetta, or “owl jacket,” is a slang term for a jacket left on the back of an office chair to create the illusion that someone is still at their desk while they are actually out. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Andrea in West Palm Beach, Florida, recalls a little ditty that her father would recite to get her out of bed in the morning: When in the morning you throw moments away, you can’t make them up in the course of the day. Or you can hurry and...