Judy from Huntsville, Alabama, recalls her stepmother’s words of encouragement: He that hath a horn to toot and tooteth it not, the same shall not be tooted. This faux-formal bit of advice goes back at least to the 1850s. A variation goes: Toot your...
Oriana, a biochemistry professor in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, uses aliquot for a chemical solution divided into equal portions. The verb works for the dividing, and the noun for each portion, whether it’s sodium chloride in a lab or, more loosely...
Does the expression to harp on, as in “to nag,” have anything to do with the stringed instrument one plays by plucking? Yes! As early as the 16th century to harp all of one string meant to keep playing the same single note monotonously. This is part...
In an earlier episode, we played a game in which we raised the ante on words with hidden “numbers” inside them. For example, forever became five-ever. Many listeners wrote to share Victor Borge’s hilarious Inflationary Language video along the same...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: “My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.” (Keep saying it over and over until you hear this...
An Indianapolis listener who lives on same street where James Whitcomb Riley made his home wonders if the poet’s name has anything to do with the expression associated with living in high style, “the life of Riley.” Click on the “lyrics” button on...
