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.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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