In this episode, Martha and Grant honor winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes, those wacky awards for weird academic research, and they help a caller decipher a puzzling word from a personals ad: what does paratereseomaniac mean?
This week’s “Slang This!” contestant learns the difference between a trailer queen and soup spitter. This is part of a complete episode.
flake n.— «The donkeys are inexpensive to keep. They eat a flake of hay a day and a Campbell’s soup tin of grain.» —“ These downtown professionals have made rural dreams a reality” by Donna Jean MacKinnon Toronto...
five head n.— «The banter later switched to a discussion of who has the highest forehead, as measured in ordinary soup crackers. One and a half crackers is a high forehead; two crackers is next to bald. Henke was accused of having a...
baleboosta n.— «She was, in the truest sense, a baleboosta, a Yiddish term meaning a remarkable cook and “boss of the kitchen.” My father tells stories of her legendary cooking: Rolling out enough dough to cover the kitchen...
hobo pack n.— «Hobo Pack.…Season meat and form into 4 thick oval patties. Place each patty in center of 14-in. piece of aluminum foil. Press rounded site of potato into patty. Top with onion and tomato halves and quarter of green...