A caller who grew up in Arkansas says his mother used a colorful expression instead of “mind your own business,” which was “tend to your own rat-killing.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Tend Your Own Rat...
Some words and phrases you just love to hate: “Your call is important to us.” “Do I mind if I put you on hold?” And how about those annoying mid-dinner announcements like “This is a courtesy call”? Martha and...
Where’d we get the expression “mind your p’s and q’s”? A Barcelona native wants help understanding exactly what it means, and shares a few other English idioms that caught her up short. This is part of a complete...
Gaudy is much older than Antoni Gaudí’s exuberant Barcelona buildings, or his name, so the adjective doesn’t come from the Catalan architect’s name. The showy sense dates to the late 15th century and may be related to the earlier noun gaud, a flashy...
For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain’s new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as “dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a quiz called “States of MIND,” in which the answers are words formed by combining the postal abbreviations of states. Try this clue: “A word that refers to your knowledge or intellectual ability. The...