A San Diego resident who grew up in Ethiopia wonders: If U.S. presidents’ wives have always been referred to as the First Lady, what title is appropriate for the male spouse of a head of state? First Gentleman? First Dude? This is part of a...
Bald-headed can mean headlong or completely, as in going at something bald-headed. Mike in Madison, Wisconsin, remembers his mother and grandmother, both from Oklahoma, warning, I’m going to pinch you bald-headed, though pinch is an uncommon variant...
There’s an old children’s ditty that goes, “Mama had a baby and its head popped off,” which you sing while popping the top off of a dandelion or similar flower. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Its Head...
Knowledge box is an old slang term for noggin; one 1755 describes someone who “almost cracked his knowledge box.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Knowledge Box” Grant, do you know what a knowledge box...
Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski, who belongs to the National Puzzlers’ League, brought us a game inspired by the league’s newsletter. In this game, based on head-to-tail shifts, the first letter of a word moves to the back to form a new word, so if...
Would you rather live in a world with no adjectives … or no verbs — and why? Also, who in the world is that director Alan Smithee [SMITH-ee] who made decades’ of crummy films? Turns out that if a movie director has his work wrested away...