Cathy from Lexington, Kentucky, recalls visiting her grandparents in Pennsylvania and enjoying a special treat: toast with coffee, cream, and sugar on it, which they called something like Hotty Tootie. That name is likely related to hot toddy...
The slang term doorknobbing denotes an extended leave-taking, as when someone says “Goodbye,” but keeps coming up with one more thing to say. Sharon in Wind River, Wyoming, shares a story about someone who used to respond to such a person with If...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s puzzle relies on voiced and unvoiced consonants, specifically the consonants D and T. One clue brings to mind a famous name with an unvoiced T sound in it, but also a clue to the name if you replace the voiced T with an...
John in Cincinnati, Ohio, says that if something seems unsurprising to him, he’ll say sarcastically Color me surprised. John is sincerely surprised to learn that the color me X construction, where X is any adjective, goes back to a 1962 bestseller...
Professional dog walkers call a dog obsessed with carrying sticks a branch manager. Another dog who grabs the other end of the stick and helps carry it around is jokingly called an assistant branch manager. This is part of a complete episode.
The heavy Army-issue utility bag called a duffel bag takes its name from the town of Duffel in the Belgian province of Antwerp, which produced a thick, coarse, woolen cloth from which such bags were originally made. The word duffel, also spelled...