Is typing two spaces after a period “totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong?” Also, is the language of the movie True Grit historically accurate? Also, shut your pie-hole, Southern grammar, oh my Lady Gaga, and a little town...
Well, shut my mouth and call me Shirley! Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! Kurt in Grand Rapids shares several of these humorous imperatives. The roots of this snowclone, a reusable phrase template of the form do X to me and call me Y, probably...
A listener reports that when her cat starts whining, she tells it to shut its kibble-hole. If only cats understood wordplay– or English. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Kibble-Hole” Grant, I love this email that...
Shut your piehole! means “Shut your mouth!” Dave in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, heard it during a tense exchange at a mechanic’s shop. Piehole appears to be a U.S. offshoot of the older cakehole, recorded from the 1940s and likely associated with British...
Another riddle: I’m taken from a mine and shut up in a wooden case from which I’m never released, yet I’m used by almost everybody. Who am I? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “What Is Mined, Cased in Wood, and Used by Almost...
Does anyone still say “Shut UP!” to mean “No way!”? A forty-something riding instructor says this Seinfeldian locution confuses some of her younger students. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Shut Up...

