Here’s a riddle: “Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven.” Think you know the answer? You’ll find it in this week’s episode, in which Grant and Martha discuss this and other...
In this week’s slang quiz, a member of the National Puzzlers’ League from Somerville, Massachusetts, tries to guess the meaning of bottle room and shred, the latter as used in the context of snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing. This...
escalator effect n.— «In the most likely outcome—a rise of 2.8 degrees Celsius by the turn of the century, according to the IPCC—400-550 birds could go extinct. If temperatures climb even more, that number would increase drastically. This...
monkey shit n.— «Back in my Navy days, working in Aft Engine Room on an repair ship, we had lots of cables (electric wires) running around—and passing thru bulkheads and into junction boxes, etc. At each point they passed into or thru...
spit-take n.— «Yet, “after all I’ve done, what I’m most remembered for is the spit- take.” That’s the point in Make Room for Daddy when [Danny] Thomas would be sipping coffee, somebody would say something surprising, and he...
pea-shake house n.— «The evidence I heard from that police officer was that the defendant said he got the money in a pea-shake house. There’s no testimony he got it gambling, stealing it, selling drugs or any illegal activity. Being in a...