Tim from Manhattan Beach, California, says his grandmother used to carry a brown paper bag and call it her poke sack. The word poke, in this case, means bag, making poke sack a pleonasm, which is an expression using more words than necessary to...
A caregiver in Calais, Vermont, says an elderly client insists on saying banana bag to mean a fanny pack. Banana bag is a term used by horseback riders to refer to a pouch that hangs by a saddle. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Patricia in Crescent City, California, grew up hearing fussbudget, so fussbucket for a teething child sounded both wrong but oddly sensible. Fussbudget, meaning someone ill-tempered, overly critical, or full of fuss, goes back at least to 1870. The...
A San Diego, California, woman is baffled by her husband’s saying: “If a frog had a pouch, he’d carry a gun.” It has to do with wishing for the impossible, similar to the saying “If wishes were horses, beggars would...

