Andres from San Diego, California, wonders: Why do we refer to jail as the pokey? The term, along with its variant pogie or pogey, likely goes back to a word for workhouse, a prison where people worked as part of their sentence, much like...
Lisa says her whole canasta group in San Diego, California, wonders if there’s a term breasting to denote one’s playing cards close to the chest so that others can’t see them. New card players often lack proprioception, that is, a...
Following up on our conversation about practical jokes played on newbies in the workplace, a San Diego, California, listener shares his own story about being sent on an errand to find a wall stretcher. This is part of a complete episode.
Shona in San Diego, California, is puzzling over why we don’t pronounce the w in the word two. The answer has to do with its etymological origins and the fact that spelling doesn’t change as quickly as pronunciation. This is part of a...
Sometimes children misunderstand language with hilarious results. But sometimes even adults can be tripped up by homonyms. Working behind the seafood counter in a supermarket, John from San Diego, California, had some embarrassing miscommunications...
Rhonda in San Diego, California, and her husband have a dispute over the proper nomenclature for flies that occasionally wing their way into their home. He wants to call a large fly a horsefly, but she has a biology and animal-husbandry background...