Kathy from Jamestown, North Dakota, has long used the phrase flat as a flivver to describe something flat. The term flivver dates back to the early 1900s; it originally referred to something that failed, such as a business or theatrical show...
A hootenanny, commonly thought of as a party in Appalachia, is also a term for German pancakes. But when you look in the Dictionary of American Regional English, you’ll notice that hootenanny is synonymous with doohickey or thingamajig, and can...
Where’d we get the expression they’re selling like hotcakes? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Selling Like Hotcakes” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Why, yes, I’ve been told I do. She was setting us up. She was ready for it...
A Texas listener recounts an ongoing debate in her family’s kitchen over the exact definition of the word spatula. Is it the kitchen tool used to spread icing and level measuring cups? Something you use to flip a pancake? That item with the plastic...
This week’s “Slang This!” contestant from the National Puzzlers’ League tries to pick out the real slang terms from a puzzle that includes the expressions board butter, cap room, mad pancakes, and mad gangster. This is part of a complete episode...
pancake people n.pl.— «But today, I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self-evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the “instantly available.” A new self...