A listener shares her grandfather’s funny saying. It’s a series of logical statements, but when pronounced very quickly it can sound like some sort of Latin incantation: In mud eels are / In clay none are / In pine tar is / In oak none is. In The...
“Do you think I came in on the noon balloon?” is a colorful alternative to “Do you think I was born yesterday?” The phrase pops up both in the columns of the late sportswriter Frank Finch and the 1967 novelty song, “Noon Balloon to Rangoon,” by...
Is there a word you keep having to look up in the dictionary, no matter how many times you’ve looked it up before? Maybe it’s time for a mnemonic device. And: a listener shares a letter from Kurt Vonnegut himself, with some reassuring advice about...