Rachel from Harrogate, Tennessee, says when she was growing up in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area, she and her fellow musicians used the term B-flat as slang for “ordinary” or “average.” In the 1938 publication New York Panorama, a guidebook to New York...
Martha tells the story of the creepy, spooky, surreal, and downright weird Robert Burns poem behind the name for that flat hat called a tam. Read it in translation here. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Tam Hat” Hello, you have A...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s latest puzzle requires players to guess the last word in a two-line verse. For example: “He’s seven feet tall and big as a tank, The meanest Marine that you’ve ever BLANK.” (Stumped? Take a letter out of “seven.”) This is...
chipping n.— «Almost every time Cole lines up across the left tackle, he’s got a tight end to deal with, too. Running backs also take a quick shot at him before releasing into the flat—a technique called chipping.» —“Eagles ends still looking for...
float v.— «Verts doesn’t consider himself a doctor, anyway. He’s a horse floater, one who “floats,” or files down, teeth. Some say floaters got their name from their partiality to drifting about the country. Others think they were named for the...
flat flounder n.— «In official and academic circles it is called intellectual dishonesty. On the long wall in Challengers or at the rum shop it is called CROOKEDNESS. At times the people afflicted are called “FLAT FOUNDER” because this fish has...

