The idiom “kick the bucket,” meaning to die, does not originate from the concept of kicking a bucket out from under one’s feet. It has to do with an older meaning of bucket that refers to the wooden beam often found in a barn roof...
Someone should write a love letter to a new book called Letters of Note. It’s a splendid collection of all kinds of correspondence through the ages: Elvis Presley fans writing to the president, children making suggestions to famous...
Everyone knows about Tang as that orange kick in a glass, but could it also be an entree? A listener from Plano, Texas, found an elderly relative’s plan for family meals from 1947, which lists “tang with molasses” as a main course...
freeway flyer n.— «Especially since the effects of Proposition 13 began to kick in with a vengeance, community colleges have become ever more dependent on cheap labor provided by part-time faculty, who are often known as “freeway...
boom-bap n.— «Staying true to the early- to mid-‘90s boom-bap aesthetic—”boom-bap” being an onomatopoeic nod to the ferocity of the kick and snare drums—the album was unapologetically rooted in New York’s Golden Era. And so...
We heard a lot in 2008 about the Obama campaign’s ground game. What’s the story on that expression?