Dale from Huntsville, Alabama, recalls a colleague in Québec dissing imitation maple syrup as lamppost syrup. Indeed, the phrase sirop de poteau, or “pole syrup,” is a disdainful reference used by French-speaking Canadians referring to the weak, artificial version of the real thing, suggesting that the so-called syrup was obtained by tapping a telephone pole, not a living, growing tree. This is part of a complete episode.
When your server brings food to the table and inquires as to who ordered which dish, that’s informally known in the restaurant biz as auctioning. If your meal is delayed because the person who took your order forgot about it, that’s called a...
Candace from Memphis, Tennessee, wonders about the phrase You’re eating me out of house and home. The emphatic doublet house and home is part of a long tradition that includes scared out of house and home and chased out of house and home. Even...
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