Doug in Madison, Wisconsin, remembers that when he was growing up in Philadelphia, his dad used the phrase the big mahoff to refer to someone important. This term that means “the big boss” or “the big cheese,” is largely...
Jared in Liberty, New York, wonders when and how the term fuggedaboudit originated and how came to be popularly associated with the New York metropolitan area. The films of Martin Scorsese had a lot to do with that. The word doesn’t always...
This week, we’re going through the e-mail bag. Here’s a savory, sensuous one. It’s from Stacey in Boulder, Colorado.
pull leather v. phr.— «But Molinas was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1975, three months after I had lunch with him at the Playboy Club. As they say in Texas, Molinas “pulled leather on the mob” in Vegas by refusing to pay his...
tumblelog n.— «Blogging has mutated into simpler forms (specifically, link- and mob- and aud- and vid- variant), but I don’t think I’ve seen a blog like Chris Neukirchen’s Anarchaia, which fudges together a bunch of disparate forms of...
chimping v.— «I saw a reference to “chimping” in regards to [sports] photography and how a digital camera with an LCD screen can make it easier, probably for instant review. My guess is it refers to holding your camera over...