Brian from Lafayette, Indiana, wonders why chicken is abbreviated CHX in the restaurant industry. Using X as a substitute or shortener has a long history. Medieval scribes sometimes drew a line through the final stroke of an abbreviated word. This...
The Texas Folklore Society’s book The Best of Texas Folk and Folklore, 1916-1954 (Bookshop|Amazon) offers some wonderful browsing, including this saying to describe an environment that’s too loud: You can’t hear your ears in this place...
When Tony from Fort Worth, Texas, ordered chicken fajitas at a restaurant, the server replied Perfect! He’s pretty confident that his order was hardly outstanding, much less perfect. He’s noticed that the response Perfect! doesn’t...
Ben in Sydney, Australia, writes with a suggestion for a word describing that feeling you get upon discovering that your favorite restaurant has closed. He calls it noshtalgia, and shares a touching story about his own experience with it...
We’ve talked before about needing a word for the disappointment you feel when your favorite restaurant closes for good. A listener suggests a pun on melancholy, meal-ancholy. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Mary Bell from Montgomery, Alabama, works in a doctor’s office where a hectic backlog of patients and appointments might elicit colleagues to say “We’re slammin’” or “We’re slammed.” The usage is familiar in restaurants and catering, where getting...
