A listener named Mark now lives in San Diego, California, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. There, he recalls, when he and his friends played sandlot baseball, cards, or board games, if an opponent tried to get around the rules and then got called...
Nikki in Charlotte, North Carolina, shares the story of a man who casually told passersby You dropped your pocket, prompting them to check for something that wasn’t there in the first place. That silly saying reminds her of playing pool and trying...
In basketball, a snowbird is a player who hangs back while the rest of her team plays defense. That way, she’s ready to break for the basket when her team gets the ball. The terms snowbird and snowbirding most likely derive from the use of the...
A listener shares his youthful experience of misunderstanding the rules of baseball and what it means to run home, and Martha confesses to a similar goof as a junior-high-school-age basketball player. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...
Susan from Eugene, Oregon, remembers school physical education in 1960s California, where teams wore pinnies: colored canvas, apron-like garments, two squares with straps, pulled over the head and tied at the sides. The gym-class term is a clipped...
Decisions by dictionary editors, wacky wordplay, and Walt Whitman’s soaring verse. How do lexicographers decide which historical figures deserve a mention or perhaps even an illustration in the dictionary? The answer changes with the times. •...
