When two people can’t gee-haw together, it means they don’t get along. The terms gee-haw, or gee and haw, come from farming, where a trained animal obeys a command to go left or right–to gee or haw, in other words. Noncompliant animals don’t gee-haw...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski have a game matching people with their animal kingdom counterparts. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Animal Kingdom Counterparts Quiz” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we...
A caller from Amherst, Massachusetts, says that her grandmother, born in 1869, never called a bull a “bull,” but instead simply called it “the animal.” This kind of euphemism, along with “gentleman cow,” supposedly helped avoid the delicate topic of...
An adult male opossum is called a jack, while the female’s called a jill. A baby opossum is simply known as cute. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Jacks and Jills” Grant, an adult male possum is called a Jack. Can you guess what an...
Tuna may be the chicken of the sea, but octopi, lobsters and crabs are the hens. That is, the females of each those species is called a hen. Aaron Zenz’s lovely book for children I Love Ewe: An Ode to Animal Moms offers a little lesson about female...
Our Puzzle Master John Chaneski has a game that should last through your longest road trip. It’s a variation of “20 Questions” called “Animal, Mineral or Vegetable.” He gives you a word and you have to find the animal, mineral or vegetable embedded...
