Nikki in Northampton, Massachusetts, disagrees with her teenage daughter about the word beef, as in to have a beef, meaning “to have a problem with someone or something.” Nikki uses the word a before the word beef, but her daughter omits...
In just seconds, online text generators and chatbots can produce whole paragraphs of sophisticated prose. But what do advances in artificial intelligence mean for writers? What is lost and what’s gained when machine-writing replaces the work...
During a trip to a renaissance faire, Quiz Guy John Chaneski noticed a fellow festooned with cuts of meat. Who might yon noble knight be, if not Sir Loin of Beef? That experience inspired John’s latest puzzle about others dubbed Sir this or...
What kind of tomato really smells? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Oh, No, Martha’s Punning Again” Grant, what kind of tomato really smells? A to-may-toe. Because it’s on your feet and your feet are stinky...
Josh in Binghamton, New York, wonders about the slang term beefed it, meaning to “took a hard fall.” It’s probably connected to biff, often used in snowboarding and mountain biking, meaning “to fail” or “do badly...
Salisbury steak is named for Dr. James H. Salisbury, who prescribed what he referred to as “muscle pulp of beef” for Civil War soldiers suffering from so-called camp diarrhea. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...