This week: whether cotton-pickin’ is racist, unintentionally funny headlines, whether enormity can simply mean “enormous,” how a person can be “such a pill,” and pandiculation. “It’s good stuff, Maynard...
If you’re driving and need to turn 180 degrees, you make a U-turn. But what do you make if you speak a language that doesn’t include the letter “U”? If you’re a Hindi speaker, what do you call wearing a V-neck sweater...
You may remember the call we had from Tony in Encinitas, California. He was curious about the term for an unusual hazing ritual.
sideshow n.— «Sgt. Lou Cruz said the boy, whose name was not released, was being driven home by friends just before 4 a.m. Saturday when they were caught in the middle of a sideshow at 90th and Bancroft avenues and someone shot at the...
highmarking n.— «The man is believed to have been killed after triggering an avalanche Saturday afternoon by driving straight up the side of a hill, a practice called highmarking.» —“Alberta snowmobiler’s body...
wet reckless adj.— «Blood tests after her traffic stop Sept. 27 found prescription drugs, but neither booze nor dope. So she was allowed to plead “no contest” to what’s known in California as “wet reckless”—that...