This week: whether cotton-pickin’ is racist, unintentionally funny headlines, whether enormity can simply mean “enormous,” how a person can be “such a pill,” and pandiculation. “It’s good stuff, Maynard!”
If you ask a salesclerk for change in the form of a case quarter, what are you asking for? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Case Quarter” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Beverly calling from Midlopie in Texas...
Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from ornithology to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a lazuli bunting?) Also this...
Chicken bog isn’t a bird name, nor is it a place. It’s a dish of rice, chicken, country sausage, and lots of black pepper, found primarily in the Southeast. It sometimes goes by the name chicken perlow or pillow or pilau. A South Carolina caller...
In certain parts of the South, a small, impromptu gift is variously known by the sibilant synonyms sirsee, surcy, searcy, or circe. A South Carolina woman who’s heard the word all her life is baffled as to where it came from. This is part of a...
An Indianapolis woman who grew up in the South says that when her slip was showing, her father used to say, “Who do you think you are, Miss Astor?” Martha shares other euphemisms for slips showing. If someone sidles up to you and says, “Pssssst! Mrs...