That gray/grey thing has been bothering me lately. I assumed the color was gray and Grey was someone's name, sort of like Tailor/Taylor.
I'm suprised tourists in New York City aren't called gapers. The locals never look up, while the tourists do it constantly.
As for the plural of pair being pair, I am reminded of poker "three of a kind beats two pair."
I never realized "nebby" was another bit of western PA lingo until I moved to the midwest. Nobody out here says it!
A quick thought on squiffy, I generally only hear it used as "a bit squiffy" or "slightly squiffy" I can't think of any occasion where I've heard someone say squiffy without one of those qualifiers.
I was surprised that, when discussing "blowing the soot out" in a car, you failed to mention the notion of cleaning out the carburetor by flooring it (or going full throttle). It is the same concept of cleaning out soot that you mentioned Grant, but there is no need for the person to have been an engineer or in the navy. It was a common excuse for accelerating as much as the car would. Whether or not it was effective is up to debate. You can ask Click and Clack all about it.
Mr Paul said:
I was surprised that, when discussing "blowing the soot out" in a car, you failed to mention the notion of cleaning out the carburetor by flooring it (or going full throttle). It is the same concept of cleaning out soot that you mentioned Grant, but there is no need for the person to have been an engineer or in the navy. It was a common excuse for accelerating as much as the car would. Whether or not it was effective is up to debate. You can ask Click and Clack all about it.
I agree. When I heard the caller's description of blowing the soot out I immediately knew what her father was doing. The thinking is that slower city driving in older cars caused carbon build up and running full throttle would clear it. As a fan of classic cars I still find myself doing the same thing!