From listener Richard Gaillard comes this question: I lived in North Carolina most of my life and in the North Carolina mountains for 11 years. Working as a carpenter I heard lots of slang terms. One exclamation (almost expletive) I heard often, and...
If you’re fair to middling, you’re doing just fine. A native of the Tennessee mountains wonders about the origin of this phrase her good-humored grandfather used. As it turns out, fair to middling was one of the many gradations a farmer...
personal Everest n.— «We awoke at dawn resembling damp tramps but feeling as if we had climbed a personal Everest of endurance…well maybe a Pen y Fan. Gordon Brown has his opinions on what defines courage. In my book, it’s spending...
bear jam n.— «The driver of the SUV stopped and jumped out, leaving the door open and blocking the one-lane road as he chased with his camera after the black furry figure ambling through a field of golden grasses.…“Bear...
