“You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!” It means you look “disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.” It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of...
One definition of a shivaree is “a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the...
Good night, nurse! is an old-fashioned exclamation for surprise, disbelief, or frustration, and Debbie in Dallas, Texas, uses it as a cussword substitute. An early example dates to 1908, close to British lexicographer Eric Partridge’s estimate of...
Martha tries out a couple of old-fashioned riddles on Grant. Here’s one: “What goes around the world, but stays in a corner?” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Old-Fashioned Riddles” Hey Grant, I have...
woodie n.— «At the moment, I was committed to Lightning Racer, a gorgeous, spaghetti-framed dueling woodie (that’s coaster-speak for a wooden coaster) that lifts you high above the lush landscape of Hersheypark.» —“A Good Old...
finé del capo n.— «I preferred Knoebels’ Twister, with its banging 101-foot split-lift hill (it climbs in two stages), and terrifying finé del capos (head-choppers, or low-hanging beams)? It’s a gut-wrenching coaster.» —“A Good Old...