An Indianapolis, Indiana, man says that when his grandmother wanted to urge someone on, she’d say “It’s time to pour the cobs on” or “It’s time for the cobs.” What’s the origin? This is part of a...
Cobwebs are spiderwebs, especially the dusty, abandoned kind that need sweeping away. Middle English coppe or cop meant “spider” or “round thing,” and cob survives mostly in this compound. A related old word, attercop, combines a word for “poison”...
How wide are the gaps between your teeth? Wide enough to “eat corn on the cob through a picket fence?” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Eating Corn through a Picket Fence” Kat emailed us and called us about...