Marlene in Indianapolis grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula using pank to mean pat, tamp, or firm something down, from snow on a ski hill to teased hair before a blast of Aqua Net. The verb is especially associated with the Upper Peninsula of...
You’re at a social gathering and meet someone you’d like to know better. What do you ask to get a real conversation going? Some people lead with “What do you do?,” while others avoid talking about work entirely. Still others ask, “Where’d you go to...
What the fox says may be a mystery, but we do know that dogs bark differently around the world. In China, for example, they say not bow-wow but wang wang. Also, the story behind the British tradition of scrumping. It’s not a middle school dance...
“Even one hair has a shadow.” This translation of the Latin proverb Etiam capillus unus habet umbram is a reminder that even the smallest thing can have large consequences. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “One Hair has a Shadow” I...
Has anyone collected the stuff folks say to bald people? How about a busy road grows no grass, or God only made so many perfect heads — the rest he covered in hair. Jorge Luis Borges deemed the 1982 Falklands War between the UK and Argentina as “a...
Lindsay from New York grew up in Tennessee using the expression to have a wild hair, meaning to get a sudden notion to do something. The older, longer form is a wild hair up one’s derriere or other words for your behind, with a sense closer to being...