Eric from Millbank, South Dakota, says his grandmother used the term duke’s mixture to denote “a hodgepodge,” such as ingredients in a stew. Duke’s mixture was originally the name of a cheap tobacco that was made from leftover odds and ends of tobacco leaves and produced by the Duke Tobacco Company of Durham, North Carolina. The term came to refer to any type of random mixture, and also applies to mixed-breed dogs. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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