A listener who grew up in Newfoundland remembers her grandfather declaring the fog was thick as burgoo. Turns out burgoo was sailors’ slang for a gray, gelatinous oatmeal—exactly the right image for an impenetrable Newfoundland fog. The word appears...
Katie in Tallahassee, Florida, saw a friend cooking with what she called a Scottish spurtle, a kitchen utensil that looks like a wooden dowel with a knob on the end, used to stir hot cereals and rice. Soon after, her husband saw an infomercial on...
In English, to beat around the bush, means “to talk while avoiding another topic” or “to talk without ever getting to the point.” A similar German phrase translates “to go like a cat around the hot porridge.” This is part of a complete episode...
shit-up n.— «Then again, officers working with prisoners who are carrying out a dirty protest (it’s known as a “s***-up” in prison parlance) do get an extra tenner a day for putting up with it.» —“Porridge leaves a bad taste” by Teddy Jamieson in...
