A New Hampshire listener recalls that as a boy, when he talked friends within earshot of his mother and said referred to her as she, his mother would pipe up with “she, being the cat’s mother.” It’s an old expression...
Ruth from Hanover, New Hampshire, asks about “Balderdash!”, the dismissive outburst for claims that sound like nonsense. The word’s ancestry remains uncertain, despite old attempts to link it with Danish, Icelandic, German, Dutch, Welsh, or Gaelic...
Beth from Springfield, New Hampshire, grew up with potch as both a noun and a verb for a toddler who gets into drawers, cupboards, and other trouble; a family T-shirt even dubbed her “Super Potch.” In Yiddish, potch or putch can mean a slap or...
Amber from Berlin, New Hampshire, works in a prison, and wants to know why those ominous double sets of prison doors are called by the feminine-sounding name sallyport. Going back to the 1600s, a sallyport was a fortified entrance to a military...
Do you have a saying for when you drive over a bump and plop back down? In the Northeast, it’s common to say thank you, ma’am, since the nodding motion of a head going over a bump is reminiscent of genteel greetings. It’s also...
If someone directs you to drive three sees, they’re advising you “drive as far as you can see, then do it two more times.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Drive Sees” We got an email from Jean Ritzema...