TagSan Diego

Close But No Tomato

Lucy, a middle-school student in San Diego, California, is puzzled by a phrase her mother uses when something is not quite up to snuff or falls short of the mark: close, but no tomato. It appears to be a variant of close, but no cigar, a phrase...

Pokey Means Jail

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...

Get the Wall-Stretcher

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.