What the fox says may be a mystery, but we do know that dogs bark differently around the world. In China, for example, they say not bow-wow but wang wang. Also, the story behind the British tradition of scrumping. It’s not a middle school...
The word receipt is occasionally used a synonym for recipe, as in “a list of ingredients in a dish and instructions on how to make it.” Both words come from the same Latin root, recipere, meaning “to receive.” The use of...
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.” Martha talks about this weather proverb, which has been around in one form or another since ancient times. Grant shares a favorite weather word: slatch...
Bavarian Chalet. Mushroom Basket. Moose Point. Who in the heck comes up with the names of paints, anyway? Martha and Grant ponder that mystery. They also explain why those annoying emails go by the name spam. And Grant explains the difference...
Whip up a big batch of pistachio pudding, then add pineapple, walnuts, Cool Whip, and marshmallow bits, and what do you have? A Los Angeles woman says her grandmother used to make a dish with those ingredients that she called pooflapoo pie. Is that...
Hurly-burly, helter-skelter, zigzag, shilly-shally— the hosts dish out some claptrap about words like these, otherwise known as reduplications or rhyming jingles. This is part of a complete episode.