Jeffrey in New Bern, North Carolina, wonders why we use the phrase right as rain to mean “all satisfactory” or “quite correct.” No one’s sure about the origin of this expression, although it may reflect positive...
When it’s raining and sunny at the same time, Brazilians say there’s a marriage between a fox and a nightingale, and South Africans say it’s a monkey’s wedding. Those images are far happier than an American phrase for the...
It’s raining, it’s pouring, but the sun is still shining. Quick—what do you call that? Some folks refer to it a sunshower, and others call it a monkey’s wedding. But a woman says her Southern-born mother used a much more unnerving...
popcorn storm n. a brief, unexpected rain shower or thunderstorm. Also, collectively and more formally, popcorn convection. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)