Following our conversation about the expression Excuse the pig, the hog’s out walking, and other phrases used an apology or mild reprimand for eructations, Robert in Jacksonville, Florida, emailed to say that when he lived in England, the phrase he most often heard in such situations was More tea, vicar? This and other expressions such as Good evening, vicar and Another cucumber sandwich, vicar? are wry ways to suggest how one might behave if such an event happened in the company of visiting clergy. The catchphrase More tea, vicar? was popularized by British comedian Dick Emery, who recorded a song called “The Vicar of Belching-by-the-Sea.”This is part of a complete episode.
A member of the ski patrol at Vermont’s Sugarbush Resort shares some workplace slang. Boilerplate denotes hard-packed snow with a ruffled pattern that makes skis chatter, death cookies are random chunks that could cause an accident, and...
A resident of Michigan’s scenic Beaver Island shares the term, boodling, which the locals use to denote the social activity of leisurely wandering the island, often with cold fermented beverages. There have been various proposed etymologies...
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