The name Jacuzzi comes from the Jacuzzi family, seven Italian brothers who emigrated to California and opened a Berkeley machine shop in 1915. Their work included propellers and irrigation pumps, and one pump became personally important when Candido...
Sue from Rancho Palos Verdes, California, says her daughter Pip used to talk about how much she loved the jazz singer Elephants Gerald. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Elephants Gerald” Sue Schmidt from Rancho Palos...
Placer mining is a method of extracting gold from alluvial deposits. You might guess that the word is pronounced with a long a, but used in this context, it’s actually a short vowel, rhyming with gasser. The term derives from a Spanish word...
Some 50 years ago, says Susan from Burbank, California, she and a friend made up a game involving prefixes and suffixes, which led to such nonsense words as epidormithry and postpreparize. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Gary from Santa Maria, California, has been arguing with a friend for years over how to pronounce that tasty Louisiana mix of meat, vegetables, and rice called jambalaya. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Pronouncing...
Fadi from Indianapolis wondered why California governor Jerry Brown has been called Governor Moonbeam, especially after the nickname resurfaced in a political Twitter jab. The label came from Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko in the 1970s, when...
