A deckhand on the Lake Champlain ferry in Burlington, Vermont, wonders if there’s a word for those accumulated chunks of ice in the wheel wells of cars. He calls them crusticles, but as we’ve discussed before, they go by lots of names...
When you pick up a book of poems, how many do you read in one sitting? Some people devour several in a row, while others savor them much more slowly. Plus, it’s a problem faced by politicians and public speakers: When you have to stand in...
A listener wonders about the origin of the phrase “your father’s mustache,” akin to the phrase “go jump in a lake,” or “your mamma wears combat boots.” Grant explains that it may sound more familiar as...
jumps n.pl.— «You look down again and the water’s boiling all around you. And you begin to see the culprits: white bass. They’re murdering a school of baitfish, and those baitfish are going airborne in a frantic attempt to escape. The...
cashed-up adj.—Gloss: Having a lot of money. «Another speaker at the summit, futurist Ross Honeywill, points out that boomers or the “cashed-up and cranky,” as he calls them are active and immediate holiday-takers, with half...
raycation n.— «We’ve grown used to the word “staycation” but what about a “raycation”? That’s the term Huntingdon County is looking to bank on. The term was coined by the county’s visitors bureau. The county’s...