Here’s a riddle: “Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven.” Think you know the answer? You’ll find it in this week’s episode, in which Grant and Martha discuss this and other...
Fess up: do you have a pet name for your car? How about your computer? Martha and Grant discuss the urge to give nicknames to inanimate objects in our lives. Also, why do we speak of vetting a political candidate? And what in the world is a zoo...
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...
sidewalk counselor n.— «For two years, on a strip of pavement outside 560 Southern Boulevard, near 149th Street, protesters and activists who call themselves sidewalk counselors have gathered four times a week—the days the clinic performs...
1090 n.— «A 1090, for those not of the Southern persuasion, is another name for a mullet, the beloved haircut being roughly 10 percent in front, 90 percent in the back.» —“Rock ‘n roll may never die” by Bill...
There doesn’t seem to be a settled counterpart to bicoastal for someone who travels between two places on the same coast. Maura in Marin County splits her time between Northern and Southern California to be near grandchildren, and bipolar isn’t the...