When Melissa was growing up in Tacoma, Washington, she’d walk to the corner store, where she’d pick up a corn dog and a bag of jo jos, a term for soft potato wedges with the skin left on. Researcher Barry Popik has dug up a story that...
A Tacoma, Wash., police report from 1946 is chock-full of showy police slang, from the punk on the stem to the handle of the beefer. Read the whole thing here. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “1946 Police Slang” Hello...
Memorial Day good wishes to you and the remembered. Here's another newsletter from "A Way with Words." Did you miss us? There was no newsletter last week, so now we have two brand-spanking-new episodes to share. This past...
DT n.— «Court documents allege Carter asked Lyons to “go look for DTs,” which is a street term for detectives, in the moments before the shooting. Lyons went down the street, then came back and reported he didn’t see any.» —“Second...
bullet sponge n.— «Fighting in there “is going to be chaotic,” he said. There’ll be lots of ricochets, concussions, shrapnel, and nowhere to crawl in retreat. “The first guy is going to go down.…He’s going to be a...
teardown n.— «A million-dollar “teardown,” real estate parlance for buying a home for the land or the view, is a new thing in Tacoma.» —“New owner bulldozes 1925 mansion” by Barbara Clements News Tribune (Tacoma...