Sean in New York City is curious about the expression the business end, as in the business end of a gun. It’s simply “the end of an object that fulfills its function or purpose,” such as the business end of a shovel, the business end of a nail, the...
Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving the German...
Tokuji Hayakawa was an early-20th-century entrepreneur whose inventions included a mechanical pencil he called the Ever-Ready Sharp Pencil, and later renamed the Ever-Sharp Pencil. Over time his company branched into other types of inventions, and...
Among some Spanish speakers, the slang phrase sacapuntas en huevos refers to someone so stubbornly persistent, they could sharpen an egg. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sharpen an Egg” We talked about sacapuntas, you remember...
From a certain point of view, re-running episodes is like putting on a favorite pair of jeans. But this past weekend we pulled on our favorite tutus and re-aired “Why Do Girls Wear Pink?” It’s the one where Grant recites a few lines of Sir Mix-A-Lot...
If someone’s in a swivet, they’re flustered or in distress. For example, you might be in a swivel if you’re late for a meeting or you’ve shown up to the SAT without a No. 2 pencil. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Swivet” I have a...
