Following up on our conversation about the phrase good enough for who it’s for, referring to something that wasn’t done perfectly but was nevertheless good enough, a Clarinda, Iowa, listener shares a similar phrase he used when doing construction...
The casual phrase good enough for who it’s for suggests that something wasn’t done perfectly, but was done well enough. This saying is not all that common, but it’s been around for at least a century. Similar expressions used in the construction...
You’ve seen this guy before: the older gent who strolls around at construction sites, asking questions, offering suggestions, and kibitizing about the activities there. The Italian dictionary Lo Zingarelli (Amazon) recently added the handy...
Jason in San Antonio, Texas, is curious why the term salamander is applied to small heater on a construction site. In ancient lore, the mythical beast called a salamander was impervious to fire. Later salamander was applied to various heating...
Tony, a plumber and pipefitter in Escanaba, Michigan, uses dead nuts when he and his coworkers finish a pipe layout exactly where it needs to be. The nuts in that expression has nothing to do with testicles. Instead, dead is the same emphasizing...
A woman in Hemet, California, wonders about plumb crazy, as in totally, completely crazy. The plumb in this case has to do with a plumb line, a line often weighted with lead to determine verticality. This plumb derives from Latin word for the...