While reading Dean Koontz’s book The House at the End of the World (Bookshop|Amazon), a listener in Ramona, California, encountered the perfect word for the walks he takes with his dog. He now refers to such an excursion as a sniffari. This is...
A listener who spent years in Ethiopia and Eritrea learning the Tigrinya language shares two sayings he learned there, both having to do with poultry. One translates as, “In its own good time an egg will walk on its own legs.” The other...
Sigrin writes from Albany, New York, that she misheard our earlier conversation about the expression shaving yak hair meaning “performing a monotonous, tedious task.” At first she thought we said shaving gnat hair, which she figures is...
We’ve talked before about dog rescue groups’ convention of naming litters of puppies according to a theme. Any idea why a recent litter of pups included Ramp, Slingshot, Kicker, and Flipper? They were all named for terms involved in pinball...
On a busy day in the emergency room, Alisa of Dallas, Texas, told an efficient colleague that she was really humming, meaning it as a compliment. Her colleague took offense, maintaining that humming meant “smelly.” Since the 18th...
Robin, in Jacksonville, Florida, has long wondered why the traditional collar word by equestrians is called a ratcatcher. There’s a long history in the horse world of referring to various forms of attire as a ratcatcher, including blouses and...