Beware of false friends, those words that don’t translate the way you’d expect. For example, the word “gift” in German means “poison,” and the Spanish word “tuna” means “the fruit of the prickly...
In many neighborhoods, the night before Halloween is the night when pranksters run around wreaking all kinds of mischief–toilet-papering houses, spraying windows with shaving cream, ringing doorbells and then running away. A Connecticut woman...
screw up move up n.— «The practice called “screw up move up” takes place by utilizing sexual favors with fellow employees to work up the chain of command, and also by violating policies and laws, an employee can screw up, not be charged...
A San Diego caller says he’s noticed that his high-school grandson and his buddies habitually refer to each other only by their last names, but his granddaughter says she and her own friends never do. Is this just a teenage guy thing? The book...
A caller wants to settle a friendly argument: Is something not worth debating called a moot point or a mute point? Here’s the scene from the Friends episode that Grant mentions, in which Joey misunderstands the term as moo point. This is part...
cocktail sip n.— «Indeed, he made no mention of it at all. Thompson spoke at an annual social sponsored by the Friends of Barbados DLP Association, the party’s New York branch headed by Lennox Price. Held at Nazareth Hall High School in...