A caller who grew up in Wisconsin says his spouse, who’s from Florida, teases him for such things as pronouncing bagel like “BEG-el” and dagger as “DEG-ger.” They’re just products of his isolect, the regional variants from his particular dialect of...
In sports slang, a horse-collar is “a score of zero,” and to horse-collar an opponent is “to hold them scoreless.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Horse-Collar Score” Here’s another bit...
Jackie in Massachusetts shares her mishearing the name of the beloved character Mr. Green Jeans on the old Captain Kangaroo TV show. She was in college before she realized his name wasn’t Mr. Cream Cheese. This is part of a complete episode...
If you think they refer to umbrellas as bumbershoots in the UK, think again. The word bumbershoot actually originated in the United States! In Britain, it’s prolly a brolly. • Also: snow-grooming language, more than one way to say bagel...
A middle-school teacher and her students in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, have a question about one girl’s pronunciation of the word bagel. Is this round yeast roll with a hole in the middle pronounced BAY-gull, BAG-ull, or BEG-ull? Although...
If you’re in England and want some cream cheese to go with your bagel, ask for Philadelphia. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Philadelphia on Your Bagel” I did not know until I was reading Lynn Murphy’s book...
