Rick in San Diego, California, wants to know why his older relatives always inscribed birthday cards with the phrase many happy returns of the day. This phrase, and the shorter version, many happy returns, indicates that the speaker is sending...
In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, “Go humans go,” or Coca-Cola’s current slogan, “Open happiness.” Martha and Grant discuss whether...
Martha tries to unravel the tangled etymological web that connects gossamer, spiders, geese, and warm weather in a late autumn.
bluebird n. in business, an unexpected, very profitable, or easily made sale. Etymological Note: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “bluebird” connoting “happiness” dates to at least as early as 1909. (source: Double...
bubblehead n.— «Drivers are divided into “incredibly nutty drivers” and “incredibly wacky drivers” with names to match—such as “Commodore Bubblehead,” who “seems to have spent a little too much...
Haitian happiness n. severe diarrhea or dysentery. Editorial Note: Many other terms for diarrhea are constructed with quickstep or (the) trots, such green-apple trots or Saigon quickstep, according to the Historical Dictionary of American Slang...