When Tony from Fort Worth, Texas, ordered chicken fajitas at a restaurant, the server replied Perfect! He’s pretty confident that his order was hardly outstanding, much less perfect. He’s noticed that the response Perfect! doesn’t literally mean “perfect,” but something more like “Okay!” or “I understand.” 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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