Nowadays we think of the gridiron as the football field, but in the 14th century, a gridiron was a cooking instrument with horizontal bars placed over an open flame. Since then, gridiron has lent its name to a Medieval torture device, the American...
Hello, friends — Good news! Our mini-podcast with Will Shortz is now on the “A Way with Words” site. Will created this quiz about anagrams and slang just for AWWW listeners. Give it a try: On to this week’s show: spoonerisms...
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...
mail-boxing n.— «Mail theft occurs so frequently that criminals have even coined a new verb: “mail-boxing.”» —“Mail fraud raises a red flag” The Acorn (Agoura Hills, California) Apr. 17, 2008...
flag drop n.— «The rate increase is the first since 2005, and the second since the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) assumed regulatory authority of local taxis that same year. Though the initial fare, commonly called the “flag...
souveniring n.— «Conservation Assistant Lori Lee-Rameriz says the flag lost some of it’s pieces, thanks to “souveniring.” Souveniring is the term used to describe the cutting of the flag by soldiers, who wanted a piece of the...
