squirrel-gripping n.— «Unfortunately none of the reports I’ve seen have explained the chair-sniffing incident, which just has to have a story behind it. Buswell has, however, been accused of grabbing the testicles of MP Murray Cowper...
“Go fly a kite!” A caller from Washington, D.C. wonders whose kite is getting flown and why. Naturally, we have some ideas! Here’s a copy of the cartoon Grant mentions (from the Chicago Tribune May 15, 1927, p. G2). This is part of...
A woman who went to school in New Orleans reports she was startled the first time she heard residents of the Crescent City talk about making groceries rather than buying them. Grant explains the French origins of that expression. This is part of a...
An Indianapolis caller wants to know about curious expression she heard from her Aunt Harriet: “put a snap on the grouch bag.” You would think it means “Stop complaining!” but she says it refers to making sure your valuables...
A caller is curious about the odd expression “to who laid the rail,” which is used to mean, among other things, “thoroughly, completely, excessively.” You can see Grant’s work on the term at the Double-Tongued...
A cantor from a synagogue in Nyack, New York, says she’s fond of the expression “the heebie-jeebies” but recently began worrying that it might be anti-Semitic. Did the term “heebie-jeebies” originate as a slur against...