A young caller from the Hudson Valley of New York wonders about his grandmother’s use of stemwinder to praise a speech she thought was excellent. In the early 1800s, people used pocket watches that had to be wound with a tiny key. Once someone...
Elaine from Boulder, Colorado, asks why to clock someone means to hit them. The slang appears to come from clock as a noun for the face, attested by the late 1800s, with the verb for punching someone in the face showing up by the 1920s. A related...
If two people are like five minutes of eleven, they’re close friends. The phrase reflects the idea of the position of a clock’s hands at that time. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Five Minutes Of Eleven”...
Here are a few good skeuomorphs, or outdated aesthetic elements: We still refer to the ticking of a clock, even though we’re surrounded by digital timekeeping devices, and the kids are working hard for those washboard abs when they don’t...
As members of the Bob o’clock Facebook group know, the expression “Bob o’clock” means, “It’s 8:08!” The hosts discuss this and other silly ways to tell time inspired by the boxy numbers on a digital clock...