Susan in Virginia Beach, Virginia, says that whenever she looked sad as a child, her grandmother would say she looked like somebody licked the red off her candy. This phrase goes back at least to the 1920s, and refers to licking the red coloring off...
David in Kingston, Ontario, asks whether his wife’s slow as Moses is a mistaken version of slow as molasses. It’s a real expression, though much less common than the syrupy one, and it likely refers to Moses as a biblical example of a very long...
Everyone knows about Tang as that orange kick in a glass, but could it also be an entree? A listener from Plano, Texas, found an elderly relative’s plan for family meals from 1947, which lists “tang with molasses” as a main course...
An Indianapolis listener says her family often refers to strong liquor as hooch, and wonders where that term comes from. The hosts trace the term’s path from an Indian village in Alaska. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Time to solve another linguistic mystery. You’re in a restaurant. You overhear a conversation at the next table. The woman says to her friend, “You know, I just love the taste of joe floggers.” And her dining companion replies...
