The Western Folklore Journal of 1976 gives us such romantic phrases as “kisses like a cold fish,” “kisses like your brother through a screen,” and “kisses like a wet brick.” This is part of a complete episode...
Is the expression right on! just an outdated relic of hippie talk, or is it making a comeback? The Journal of American Folklore traces it back to at least 1911, but it gained traction among African-Americans and hippies in the ’60s and ’70s, and now...
You know that feeling you get when you say something you’ve known forever — slang, a catchphrase, a cultural reference — and the other person stares blankly? They have no idea what you’re referring to. Sometimes you feel old...
Hi, all — In this week’s archive edition, we discuss not-so-smartphones, “Erin” vs. “Aaron,” “who” vs. “whom,” what happens when you “overegg the pudding,” and what it means to...
A gracious good morning to you! In this week's archive episode, we savor the pleasure of reading poetry aloud -- specifically the poems in "Essential Pleasures," the recent anthology of ear-pleasing poems gathered by U.S...
A 2009 article in American Speech by John Considine proposes that blotto, slang for drunk since around World War I, may come from Blotto Frères, a French maker of a three-wheeled delivery vehicle known to be dangerous and erratic. The idea is that...