only meatball in the rice
n.— «I was the only meatball in the rice tonight.…I was on my high school staff and as my best friend in the program put it—”It’s only Six of us Meatballs in the Rice” Meatballs being the black people in the program. Rice being the 30/40 plus other students who were white.» —“Meatball in the Rice” by Queen-To-Be Queen To Be Dec. 6, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
Why do speakers of the same language have different accents? A lively new book called Why We Talk Funny offers a linguist’s look at how and why accents develop. And: If you’ve “stood up” at a wedding, were you supporting the marriage or objecting to...