If someone’s extremely annoyed or frustrated, you describe them with the idiomatic expression they’re fit to be tied. But where did this saying come from? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Fit to Be Tied, But How...
The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary recently added several Irish English terms. One of them is segotia, which means “friend.” There’s an entry for this word, also spelled segocia, in Grant’s own book, The Official...
Mary in Laramie, Wyoming, says her mother used to speak of taking a possible bath, meaning washing up using water from the sink instead of taking a bath or a shower. The idea is that you wash up as far as possible, then down as far as possible, and...
Jonathan in San Diego, California, remembers his father answering How’s it going? with same old six and eight. The phrasing is very rare, but it may be a family or misremembered variant of the British same old seven and six, meaning things are...
“They shot the white girl first.” That’s how Toni Morrison’s novel, Paradise, begins, and it’s a great example of an irresistible first line. Martha shares others sent in by listeners. She also reads from a Michael...
Barack Obama wants to put people to work building roads and bridges. But how about a federal jobs program for out-of-work writers? Also: why do we call it a flight of wine? How did the haircut called a mullet get its name?