A listener shares her grandfather’s funny saying. It’s a series of logical statements, but when pronounced very quickly it can sound like some sort of Latin incantation: In mud eels are / In clay none are / In pine tar is / In oak none is. In The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Bookshop|Amazon), folklorists Iona and Peter Opie show that there are lots of versions of this saying — including one in a medical manuscript from 500 years ago! Two other lines that sometimes accompany this saying are Goat eat ivy / Mare eat oats, the inspiration for the 1940s novelty song “Mairzy Doats.”This is part of a complete episode.
Knitters are creating temperature blankets, also known as weather blankets, by assigning colors to daily temperatures and stitching them into finished pieces. Makers involved in The Tempestry Project extend the practice by representing the weather...
Nikki in Charlotte, North Carolina, shares the story of a man who casually told passersby You dropped your pocket, prompting them to check for something that wasn’t there in the first place. That silly saying reminds her of playing pool and trying...
