Artie in New Bern, North Carolina, wonders why a poker hand consisting of a pair of aces and a pair of eights is called a dead man’s hand. Legend has it that when Wild Bill Hickock was killed during a poker game in 1876 in the Dakota Territory, he...
Laura from Ithaca, New York, is puzzling over the lyrics to Cornell University’s fight song, “Give My Regards to Davy,” sung to the tune of George M. Cohan’s “Give My Regards to Broadway.” The lyrics include the word pikers, specifically, Tell all...
A historian in Indianapolis, Indiana, says a World War II-era letter from her father to her mother refers to running a sandy. It’s a phrase that derives from poker and the act of sandbagging, a kind of bluffing of an opponent. This is part of a...
The word jackpot can denote the pile of money you win at a game of poker, but another definition is that of trouble, tangled mess, or a literal logjam. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Jackpot Origin” Hello, you have A Way with...
The phrases “You bet your boots!”” and “You bet your britches!” mean “without a doubt” and most likely originate from gambling culture, where you wouldn’t want to bet your boots or trousers without being confident that you’d win. This is part of a...
If the word consecutively doesn’t feel exciting enough, there’s always hand-running. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hand-Running” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, my name is Jan Haller. I’m calling from Taos, New Mexico...
