Motown sweep
n.— «That move you wrote about today where drivers exit from the left lane has a name. It’s called “the Motown Sweep.” I’m not sure who coined the phrase, but I originally heard about it from one of my professors at Wayne State University in the 1980s. He explained that it was most prevalent on I-94 for whatever reason. I think it’s been an epidemic for a long time. By any name it’s pure idiocy.» —“Readers rage about idiocy on freeways” by Matt Helms Detroie Free Press (Michigan) Sept. 7, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Matt from Grand Rapids, Michigan, was puzzled when colleagues kept saying someone had stood up at a wedding, indicating that they’d been a member of the wedding party. The expression stood up in that sense is an Americanism going back about two...
Susan from Virginia Beach, Virginia, shares the phrase her mother used when the kids refused to eat: It’ll grow hair on your back teeth. This supposed motivator likely blends two older traditions: a German idiom, Haare auf den Zähnen haben...