Someone who is likened to “a dog in the manger” is acting spitefully, claiming something they don’t even need or want in order to prevent others from having it. The story that inspired this phrase goes all the way back to ancient Greece. This is...
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, listener who heard our conversation about the phrase sharp as a marshmallow sandwich wonders about a similar expression that denotes a person who’s not all that bright: “sharp as a bag of marsh.” Variations of this insult...
Someone on the dull side might be described as “sharp as a marshmallow sandwich.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Marshmallow Sandwich” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Jess Haberman calling from Saugus...
A violin maker wonders about the origin of a practice in his trade known as purfling, where a black and white line is inlaid into a tiny channel along the edge of the instrument. Martha traces the word back to the Latin filum, meaning “line” or...
Whip up a big batch of pistachio pudding, then add pineapple, walnuts, Cool Whip, and marshmallow bits, and what do you have? A Los Angeles woman says her grandmother used to make a dish with those ingredients that she called pooflapoo pie. Is that...