In Italian, a giacca civetta, or “owl jacket,” is a slang term for a jacket left on the back of an office chair to create the illusion that someone is still at their desk while they are actually out. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
A listener reports that when his Kentucky-born grandmother heard anyone say Who, me? she’d respond Your feet don’t fit a limb. It’s a pun on the sound an owl makes. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Your Feet...
Christine in Santa Cruz, California, says her well-traveled father always used the phrase I’ve seen the elephant and heard the owl to mean “I’m not easily deceived” or “You can’t pull the wool over my eyes.”...
Two examples of adynaton, the rhetorical term for playful exaggeration suggesting that something will never happen, involve animals’ tails. One German expression translates as “It’ll happen when the hounds start barking with their...
John in Frisco, Texas, is puzzled by his dad’s phrase tougher than a boiled owl. Although it sounds unappetizing, the phrase has a fascinating backstory. In the 18th century, owls were associated with drunkenness, and often invoked in the...
Twitter user @crookedroads770 observed that his two-year-old son referred to an owl as a wood penguin. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Wood Penguin” I loved this tweet from someone whose handle is CrookedRoads770. He...
