A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, listener has been pondering the saying It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and specifically whether she uses it correctly. The expression usually appears as It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, means that even bad events usually benefit someone. The phrase goes back at least to the 16th century, and Shakespeare uses it to devastating effect inHenry VI, Part Three, Act 2, Scene 5, when a soldier triumphantly looting a battlefield corpse turns the body over and realizes he has killed his own father. This is part of a complete episode.
Those green plastic strips tucked between cuts of meat in supermarket display cases? They’re parsley runners, the result of recommendations from a professional color consultant hired by a grocery chain in the 1950s. Under bright store lights, the...
Daniel from Gardnerville, Nevada, remembers his aunt had a habit of responding to anyone who left the word so hanging there in mid-conversation with, Sew a button on your underwear. It’s is one of a whole family of playful rejoinders, including Sew...
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