Marissa in Tallahassee, Florida, is puzzled when a friend observes that coffee goes through her like salts through a widow-woman, meaning that the beverage makes its way swiftly through her digestive system. The expression, which has been around since the 1860s, refers to the use of Epsom salts as a laxative. In other versions of this analogy, different verbs are used, including lit out, disappeared like, and hurried like. The list of what the salts are sometimes said to go through includes a hired girl, a tall Swede, a sick child, a weak man, a sick cow, a sick horse, a goose, and even a skeleton. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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