“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...
wadge n.— «The glass house should go for 5 minutes, so they don’t have to pad it out with so many shitpoor jokes. and that “wear a funny hat and talk shit about vag” (or, more recently, wadge) segment is beyond terrible...