A woman in Fairbanks, Alaska, says she’s been described as strong like ox, smart like streetcar. Is that a compliment? Other variations include strong like bull and smart like tractor or smart like dump truck. The phrase strong like bull was...
A Burlington, Vermont, listener says that when he was a boy, his dad used to call him a “little Gomer.” It’s a reference to the 1960’s sitcom “Gomer Pyle,” which featured a bumbling but good-hearted U.S. Marine...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski serves up a sibilant quiz about three-word phrases that have words beginning with S separated by the word and. For example, what 1970’s sitcom featured a theme song by Quincy Jones called “The Street Beater”...
First names like “Patience,” “Hope,” and “Charity” are inspired by worthy qualities. But how about “Be-courteous” or “Hate-evil”? The Puritans sometimes gave children such names hoping that...
Sure, there’s Grandma and Grampa, but there’s also Gammy, Bumpy, Dadoo, Gre-Gre, Kiki, Kerkel, Monga, Nee-Nee, Pots, Rah-Rah and Woo-Woo. Martha and Grant talk about the endlessly inventive names grandchildren call their grandparents...
You know the sputtering, raspberry-like noises you make with your lips on a baby’s tummy so he’ll giggle? Many people call that a raspberry, but some people call that a zerbert. A caller’s husband insists that Bill Cosby coined the...