We have books for language-lovers and recommendations for history buffs. • How did the word boondoggle come to denote a wasteful project? The answer involves the Boy Scouts, a baby, a craft project, and a city council meeting. • Instead of reversing...
After our conversation about blessing boxes, those little free pantries stocked with donated food, a listener points out the use of love fridges in Chicago. These community fridges, sometimes called freedges, are springing up in lots of places. This...
Nancy in Newport, Kentucky, says friends used to refer to her young son and daughter as a pigeon pair. Doves and pigeons tend to have two chicks at a time, and at one point, it was believed that these offspring always consisted of one male and one...
What do you call it when you have no particular evening meal planned and everyone in the family just cobbles together their own dinner? Our listeners have been mulling this question and have lots of names for it: YOYO (as in “You’re on...
Keith in Valparaiso, Indiana, grew up hearing his mother call the refrigerator compartment the icebox, a term that isn’t just a family quirk. Before electric refrigerators became common, especially before the 1930s, an icebox was a wooden cabinet...
If you’re tired of telling youngsters to hurry up and close the refrigerator, try this admonishing them with this phrase or one like it: “Stop letting the penguins out!” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...