On the spur of the moment means doing something suddenly or spontaneously. The expression comes from a horse rider’s spur, a sharp device used to urge a horse forward. The image is of action encouraged in the moment rather than through a careful...
A listener in Abu Dhabi responded to our request for literary limericks with one of her own. It starts with “There once was a lass on a ledge….” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Lass on a Ledge Limerick” A...
A 13-year-old from San Diego, California, wonders: Why do we call that breakfast staple toast instead of, say, toasted bread? It’s natural to find shortcuts for such terms; we’ve also shortened pickled cucumbers to just pickles. This is...
A San Diego, California, woman is baffled by her husband’s saying: “If a frog had a pouch, he’d carry a gun.” It has to do with wishing for the impossible, similar to the saying “If wishes were horses, beggars would...
Turkey vultures spotted on a hike in San Diego’s Mission Trails Regional Park lead to a small feast of collective nouns for turkey vultures. A group in a tree can be a committee, a venue, or a volt. In flight, it’s a kettle, and when feasting on...
The stunning play “Our Lady of Kibeho”, set in Rwanda, includes some powerful East African proverbs gathered by playwright Katori Hall, such as “A flea can bother a lion, but a lion cannot bother a flea,” and “When two...