Is the term “Oriental” offensive? Where do we get the phrase “not one iota”? Why do we tell someone to “take a gander”? And who coined the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” This kind of sudden, surprising turn in a sentence is called a paraprosdokian. Martha and Grant trade some examples. This is part of a...
frailing n.— «Among country and bluegrass musicians, Mr. Martin is regarded as a master of a difficult five-fingered playing style known as clawhammer or frailing, in which the instrument’s strings are pushed down by fingernails, rather...
Hello, everybody! Welcome to another newsletter from the A Way with Words crew. Grant is hunkered down in 17-degree weather in New York, Martha is hang-gliding in the Sierras, and the quiz guys aren't sure how to leave the house, even if...
pig n.— «Bad jokes flew Friday after a flurry of media reports that a pig caused a train derailment in Saginaw County’s Carrollton Township. Only problem was, the “pig” was a slang reference to a propane tank.» —“Pig...
five-head n.— «One American friend of mine has a very large forhead and he used to crack jokes like that: “I don’t have a forehead, I’ve got a five-head!”» —“Forehead” by Sergei Buhtoyarov Usenet: fido7.ru...