Mary in Dallas, Texas, grew up in Canada and wonders why her British mother affectionately calls Mary’s nine-year-old son booby, a pet name passed down in the family from England. In Britain, booby has long been a children’s term for a crybaby...
The taunt neener, neener, neener is more an interjection than a noun or adjective. It belongs to a family that includes nyah-nyah and nanny-nanny-boo-boo. Brett in San Diego remembers it from Southern California playgrounds, where the melody is part...
A Texas grandmother says she’s long been baffled about the origin of a counting rhyme that she learned from her grandmother. During the game, her grandmother bounced her on her knee, saying, “Malagee Buck, Malagee Buck, how many fingers...