Gene calls from the Badlands of South Dakota to ask about ordering a glass of water at a restaurant by asking for a blue dolphin neat. Is that widely used? There are many slang terms used when ordering water, such as windmill cocktail, city coke, fish broth, Adam’s ale, and Neptune’s daughter. A teetotaler may also say give me one on the city. Gene’s also curious about a saying his grandmother used: Cold water is the cup that cheers away, away the bowl. This expression arose amid the Christian temperance movement of the 1830s, and appeared in many songs urging abstinence from alcohol. This is part of a complete episode.
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
Debbie from Crawfordsville, Florida, says that when she and her husband reach an impasse while working on something, they’ll say Let’s grok about it, which they use to mean “Let’s think about it.” Grok was coined by...
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