Susannah in Aiken, South Carolina, is curious about slumgullion, a word her dad used to denote “gooey baby food” or “goopy oatmeal.” Slumgullion originated with the California gold rush, when miners forced large quantities of water through soil to...
Byron from Norfolk, Virginia, ran across goldbrick in a 1950s military police training film, where it meant someone useless or unreliable. The slang goes back to a 19th-century swindle in which scammers painted lead or other metals gold and sold...
The phrase the land of the living goes back to passages in the Bible like Psalm 52:5. Since at least the 1700s, this expression has been used to denote the realm of those still alive. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Land of...
flour gold n.— «You can find nuggets. California is renowned for having larger pieces. But primarily what you’re going to find at first is fine gold, or flour gold as they call it. That’s all worth money too. Don’t throw it out, or be...
skylab n.— «Already in the gold rush mountain of Diwalwal (Monkayo, Davao del Norte) they use the same Honda motorcycle differently—no side car but it accommodates as many as eight passengers. They call it “skylab,” for it...
