Some gems in this week’s mailbag: Following up on our conversation with a caller hoping to promote less-violent alternatives to the phrase kill two birds with one stone, a listener who grew up in India wrote in with one from her native...
Our conversation about slang terms for traveling on foot, such as going with Pat and Charlie, inspired Kevin in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to share some more he learned from his wife Arely, who is from Honduras. There voy al puro once, literally means...
After Sarah moved from Wisconsin to Iowa, she sparked some momentary confusion when she asked a store clerk where his TYME machine was. In parts of Wisconsin, Florida, and Michigan there are automated teller machines, or ATMs, called TYME machines...
Sherry from Green Bay, Wisconsin, remembers that whenever she balked at doing a chore as a kid, her grandmother would say If ifs and ands were pots and pans, a tinker would have no trade. Her grandmother was suggesting that merely paying lip service...
Mike from Green Bay, Wisconsin, says his dad claims to have coined the term radke for a half-finished beer, and that the term is widespread. Is it? More widespread and well-documented terms for such unfinished drinks are wounded soldier and grenade...
Aaron in Green Bay, Wisconsin, grew up hearing his father say someone had more excuses than Carter’s got pills, or more money than Carter’s got pills. The comparison points to Carter’s Little Liver Pills, a heavily advertised patent medicine...

