Nancy in Newport, Kentucky, says friends used to refer to her young son and daughter as a pigeon pair. Doves and pigeons tend to have two chicks at a time, and at one point, it was believed that these offspring always consisted of one male and one...
In a nutshell refers to something that’s “put concisely,” in just a few words. The phrase goes all the way back to antiquity when the Roman historian Pliny described a copy of The Iliad written in such tiny script that it could fit...
If you’re looking for an alternative version of Hamlet’s soliloquies, a member of our Facebook group has been turning famous passages from literature into limerick form with entertaining results. This is part of a complete episode...
In observance of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, copies of his First Folio will be touring all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, for the public to see. It seems fitting, considering what D.H. Lawrence wrote about the Bard: “When...
If someone’s a piece of work, they’re a real pain in the rear. Merriam-Webster defines a piece of work as “a complicated, difficult, or eccentric person.” The expression appears to derive from Hamlet: “What a piece of...
Why do some town names end in ham? Effingham, Illinois; Birmingham, Alabama; Gotham City, U.S.A. They all derive from the Old English ham meaning “home” or “homestead.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
