Black-hearted buzzard isn’t a standard expression, but its parts have long histories. Black-hearted has meant having ill will or bad intentions since the 1600s, and buzzard has been an insult since the 1300s, likely a polite substitute for...
Asher in Burlington, Vermont, grew up wondering why his father jokingly called him a little Gomer. The nickname points to Gomer Pyle, the good-hearted goofball from The Andy Griffith Show who later became a U.S. Marine in his own 1960s sitcom. After...
As members of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club know, Andy sometimes shook his head and declared, You’re a bird in this world, meaning that someone was unique or otherwise remarkable. The expression appears to have originated with the...