Are we a proverb culture anymore? In a largely urban society, we’re not likely to immediately recognize the meaning of the saying between hay and grass, meaning “weak” or “feeble.” This is part of a complete episode.
The term white-livered, like lily-livered, can describe someone timid. But an old folk tradition, once common in the South, associates having a white liver or white spots on one’s liver with an insatiable sexual appetite. The terms white...
The Western Folklore Journal of 1976 gives us such romantic phrases as “kisses like a cold fish,” “kisses like your brother through a screen,” and “kisses like a wet brick.” This is part of a complete episode.
Is the expression right on! just an outdated relic of hippie talk, or is it making a comeback? The Journal of American Folklore traces it back to at least 1911, but it gained traction among African-Americans and hippies in the ’60s and ’70s, and now...
What’s the plural of cyclops? If you have a group of those one-eyed mythical monsters, your best bet is cyclopes, pronounced sye-KLOH-peez. This is part of a complete episode.
Hi-ho, neighbors! Did you catch last week’s brand-new episode? Listen to “Lousy with Diamonds,” see its show notes, or download the MP3. Among many other things, we talked about money cat. It’s what a Mainer might call a...