Homer in Kingsport, Tennessee, says that when Homer came in after curfew, his dad would say, “You guys have been out swarping, haven’t you?” Swarping is related to a variety of dialect terms in Scotland and Northern England that have to do with...
Monica says that generations of children in her Augusta, Kentucky, neighborhood would go tick-tacking, or playing pranks during the nights leading up to Halloween — soaping car windows, tossing corn kernels onto front porches, leaving flaming paper...
In the late 19th century, Wisconsin newspaperman George Wilbur Peck wrote a series of columns about a fictional boy who was the personification of mischief. The popular character inspired stage and movie adaptations, and the term “Peck’s Bad Boy”...
This week, it’s backhanded phrases, those snarky remarks that come sugar-coated in politeness, like “How nice for you,” “Oh, interesting!,” and the mother of all thinly veiled criticism, “Bless her heart.” Also this week, free reign vs. free rein...
Cabbage Night n.— «Ah, the joys of the annual ritual of mischief known throughout Vermont as Cabbage Night. It’s the night many home- and business-owners have come to dread as youths harness all their collective naughtiness into one evening of...
nippertipping n.— «York Region police have launched hate-crime investigations into four incidents of “nippertipping,” acts of violence or mischief targeting mostly Asian-Canadians.» —“Hate-crime probe begins” by Paola Loriggio Toronto...