In an article in The Atlantic magazine, humorist Mark Twain quoted a sing-songy bit of doggerel about conductors punching railroad fares that illustrates how colored paper has long been used to encode information. This is part of a complete episode...
San Diego journalist Kelly Davis reports that an automated transcription error resulted in the phrase serious mental Elvis. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Serious Mental Elvis” Kelly Davis, a fantastic journalist here in San...
The mouthful supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is often associated with the song by the same name in the 1964 movie Mary Poppins. But versions of this word were around for decades, including in a 1949 song called “Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus...
If you simply read each letter aloud, you can see why O.U.Q.T.! U.R.A.B.U.T.! can be interpreted to mean “Oh, you cutie! You are a beauty!” A statement expressed that way with letters, numerals, or drawings is called a rebus, or, if it’s solely...
Um, are you, like, one of those people who, get, like, really annoyed, by, you know, like, lots of filler words in, you know, like, conversation? If it’s any comfort, there’s a great term for this. Can you say embololalia?
Do you want to get down? Ask that in parts of Louisiana, and people know you’re not inquiring whether they care to dance, you’re asking if they want to get out of a car. A former Louisianan who grew up using the expression that way wonders if it’s...
