Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving the German...
This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy had corned beef and cabbage, this little piggy had none. At least, that’s the way a caller from Sebastian, Florida, remembers the children’s rhyme. Most people...
roast breadfruit n.— «If there is genuine pride in ethnic particularity, plain and simple, there can be no place for denouncing those who are not so vocal or even ambivalent about ethnic issues. Nor should we indulge or defend the practice of...
roast n.— «In musicians’ parlance, a “roast” refers to a particularly challenging gig. I am currently stuck in snowy Gatwick awaiting a plane to the Matterhorn, on the way to a prog-rock roast presided over by the impossibly affable Jon Lord (of...
bean to bar adj.— «Bean to bar…a buzz phrase used in the chocolate world to describe the handful of chocolate makers who roast, grind and process their own cacao beans into couverture. Some have been known to fake it, e.g., “Noka presented itself...
who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «Thanks to the farmers and their livestock, we had scrambled eggs, bacon, and roast beef ’til who laid the rail.» —“Over Cokes” in Eldora Hi-Lites Eldora High School Mar. 24, 1950. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)