An Iowa listener says her father was known for being laconic. When the family tried to draw him out by asking his opinion, he’d often respond with the observation Well, I think it takes a big dog to weigh a ton, suggesting something along the lines of “I don’t know. This sounds like a real problem for you.” There are many different variants of this expression, varying according to the large thing — such as a big woman, a big man, a big hog, a big steer — and the weight, such as a thousand pounds, five hundred pounds, a hundred pounds, and fifty pounds. Sometimes the word big itself is also modified as pretty big or mighty big. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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