An ort is a small bite of food left on one’s dinner plate. Also known as the manners bit or manners piece, because some people consider it polite for guests to leave that last bite, which suggests that the host provided enough for everyone to...
A San Antonio, Texas, woman wonders about a tradition she grew up with. Before drinking an alcoholic beverage, you hand the drink to someone else to have a sip in order to take the devil out of it. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
The answer to the riddle “Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven” is hours of sleep a night. It comes from a collection of riddles gathered from Black schoolchildren in New Orleans and printed in early...
make it rain v. phr.— «If that’s not enough, showoffs at Rehab have developed a custom that they call making it rain. “They drop $100 bills from the cabanas up above,” Mr. Pallas says, “and watch the crowd down below go crazy. We have a...
off plan adv.— «“Many of them buy off plan, because they’re fearless,” she added, referring to the custom of putting money down on apartments long before they are completed.» —“An Irish Taste for Real Estate in...