Careful what you criticize! Not long ago, some words that sound perfectly normal today were considered gauche and grating on the ear. If the complainers had had their way, we couldn’t say a word like pessimism or use contact as a verb! Also, we’ll...
There’s a new kind of hamburger menu that involves pixels, not pickles. It’s that little stack of horizontal lines in the corner of a webpage that you click to see more options. You might use a hamburger menu while webrooming–that is, when you go...
The term pigs, in reference to police officers, comes from England’s underground criminal slang and shows up in the early 1800s. It refers to pigs as vile creatures that take more than their share, akin to police officers who would take the illicit...
A police officer says that the prosecutor edits out the word “that” from the reports he submits, as in, “The subject stated that he met the co-defendant at a party.” Is the word “that” necessary here? Martha and Grant disagree. Also, the cop also...
A listener from Clifton Park, New York, says her grandfather was a police officer who used the term jakey bum to refer to undesirable characters. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Jakey Bums” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi...
fix-it ticket n.— «Apparently, in most states, having one headlight out is not considered a moving violation (in some states it is legal to only have one headlight working), but referred to as a “fix-it ticket.” Meaning, the police officer gives...
