In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, “Go humans go,” or Coca-Cola’s current slogan, “Open happiness.” Martha and Grant discuss whether...
Lee from Philadelphia’s green Amazon parrot is named Alexander Hamilton, not Polly, but strangers still greet him with Polly want a cracker? The joke is old: Poll was a nickname for parrots as far back as the 1600s, and by 1848 the cracker line was...
OMG, text messaging! It’s destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into illiterates. It’s probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, Txting: The Gr8 Db8, David Crystal offers a...
drive to qualify v. phr.— «In real estate parlance, families like the McCauslands “drive to qualify” for a mortgage; the big house they want is affordable only in far-out communities.» —“Long commutes, gas prices crimping...
woolly-booger n.— «Smithson, also a retired state trooper, called Roan’s amendment a “woolly-booger,” a colloquial term for last-minute language inserted in a bill that has far-reaching impact. “He’s a very sharp House member...
godbag n.— «Far worse than the language was the bitter hatred directed at Christians, particularly Catholics. I’m not a religious guy (godbag or christofascist in M&M parlance), but it was hard not to take offense at the immaculate...