A man who owns a parrot says that when people see his bird, they invariably ask the question “Polly wanna cracker?” He wonders about the origin of that psittacine phrase, meaning parrot-like. One of the earliest uses of the phrase so far...
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...
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...
grits line n.— «Alexandria still has its Jefferson Davis Highway and Springfield its Robert E. Lee High School, but if last week’s election showed anything, it’s that Northern Virginia is not only different than the rest of the state, it...
gonch n.— «Be sure to shake the sand out of your gonch afterward. It itches something fierce.» —“It’s Far Out!; The Best Single-Player Shooter Since Half-Life” by Steve Tilley Toronto Sun (Canada) Apr. 4...
hand n.— «There may be fewer bananas around this year, following Cyclone Larry in Far North Queensland, but that doesn’t mean the quality of the fruit has dropped. That’s the consensus after the Ekka, when many “hands” (what...