Lizzie calls from Bromgrove in the West Midlands of England to ask about the phrase Would you jump in my grave as quick? She remembers hearing friends say it when, for example, someone took their nice warm spot on the sofa when they got up to make a...
Can language change bad behavior in crowded places? The Irish Railway system has launched an ad campaign to encourage passengers to be more generous at boarding time. For example, have you ever rummaged through your belongings or pretended to have...
Kid cheater and child cheater are synonyms for spatula, because when you’re baking a cake, a spatula is so efficient for removing the remnants of a sweet mixture from a bowl that there’s little left for a kid to lick off. This is part of...
If you want to be a better writer, try skipping today’s bestsellers, and read one from the 1930’s instead. Or read something besides fiction in order to find your own metaphors and perspective. Plus, just because a city’s name...
If you’re sitting on a subway or airplane seat and someone’s invading your space, you can always offer the colorful rebuke “Lean on your own breakfast,” meaning “straighten up and move over.” This is part of a...
Goggle-bluffing is the train passenger’s trick of averting your line of eyesight so as to fool other passengers into not taking the seat next to you. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Google-Bluffing” Here is...
