Kelly from Butte, Montana, recalls that when a few morsels remained at the end of a meal, her grandmother would say, Make it a nice day tomorrow, meaning everyone should eat all their food. A version used by a childhood friend’s family was Make it a...
High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality check — but the last thing you’d actually want to touch is dog water! Also, the history of the word hangover...
Cathy from Lexington, Kentucky, recalls visiting her grandparents in Pennsylvania and enjoying a special treat: toast with coffee, cream, and sugar on it, which they called something like Hotty Tootie. That name is likely related to hot toddy...
In parts of the United States, cottage cheese is called smearcase, from German Schmierkäse, a combination of schmieren, “smear,” and Käse, “cheese.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Smearcase, Schmierkäse” You have a way with words...
Astronauts returning from space say they experience what’s called the overview effect, a new understanding of the fragility of our planet and our need to reflect on what humans all share as a species. A book about the end of the universe offers a...
When a listener from Buffalo, New York, was a child, she was told to stop being so rutschy, or in other words, to stop being so “fidgety.” Rutsch, meaning “to squirm,” and its variants, which include rooch and roosh, come from German rutschen, which...
