The owner of a Berlin, Maryland, produce stand wants to know: When a customer is buying four ears of corn, should they say I have four corn or I have four ears of corn? Corn is a mass noun that can also be counted as a plural, just as we might say I...
When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms like YOYO — “you’re on your own” — or CORN, for “Clean Out your Refrigerator...
Here’s an unparalleled misalignment, with a punning payoff: sickness pay and coffee. (Get it?) This is part of a complete episode.
When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blankets a pallet. This word comes from an old term for “straw.” And: What’s the story...
Barbara in Jacksonville, Florida, recalls her grandmother saying she liked her coffee strong enough to tote double and kick up behind. The expression tote double refers to the action of a horse carrying two people. If a horse is able to kick up...
If something is saucered and blowed, it’s completed. The expression derives from an old tradition of pouring a bit of boiling coffee or tea into a deep saucer, and blowing on the liquid to make it cool enough to drink. This is part of a...
