He can’t “hold a candle” to someone means that he can’t possibly compare to the other person. The hosts explain where this phrase comes from. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hold a Candle” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi...
bug n.— «Now that Ms. Studart is no longer an apprentice, her prospects for rides are unclear, especially with more experienced jockeys coming to New York for the summer season. Trainers tend to favor apprentices—nicknamed “bugs” for the asterisks...
bug n.— «Rode five winners on a December 1981 afternoon at New York’s Aqueduct as an apprentice, something not even “The Kid,”” Steve Cauthen—famous and fresh off his Triple Crown triumph aboard Affirmed three years earlier—had managed to...
coolie n.— «Apprentices have been at work for more than an hour now, doing “coolies,” a term for unskilled labor such as Barnies” groundskeeping chores. With sweat rolling down foreheads, they work diligently, even if their employers aren’t around...
swamper n.— «The man killed at an oil rig site in west central Alberta yesterday was a second year apprentice who had only been working for the company three months, say family.…He was what the industry calls a swamper, “the right hand man of the...