A listener in Honolulu, Hawaii, wonders about an expression used by her husband’s grandmother, who was from eastern Kentucky: “He left so fast, that you could have played marbles on his coattails.” The notion that a person is...
English is full of unusual terms, both old (eleemosynary, favonian) and new (flyaway, catio). Also, the Swahili term that means “sleep like a log,” the multiple meanings of the word joint, cowpies and horse biscuits, what it means to...
Guess what! Or would that be Guess what? A Honolulu listener asks about the right way to punctuate this interjection. Should you use an exclamation mark or a question mark? How about an interrobang or a pronequark? This is part of a complete episode...
punee n.— «Kristen Scott, an architect in Seattle, said about one-third of her empty nester clients asked for separate bedrooms, which can cost a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000. In Honolulu, Nancy Peacock, an architect, said...
ro-ro n.— «The Kaholo is a roll-on/roll-off barge—”ro-ro,” in the parlance of maritime shipping—that is far easier to load and unload than if cars and trucks had to be hoisted on and off.» —“Young Brothers gets ro-ro...
cowboy coffee n.— «There we made coffee on a gas stove by boiling water and pouring the grounds into the pot. Some referred to it as cowboy coffee, but I thought it was the best cup I’d ever had.» —“Peaceful day amid...