A lifeguard in Central Florida is perplexed when his fellow lifeguards indicate they’ve heard a radio transmission by responding with a phrase like Tower Two copies rather than Tower Two, copy. Which is correct? They both are. The word copy in radio...
Roderick in Jacksonville, Florida, says patients in his cardiac electrophysiology practice often look at the tangle of EKG wires on their chests and joke that now they’re wired for sound. What’s the origin of this phrase? Although to wire meaning...
Brian from Lafayette, Indiana, wonders why chicken is abbreviated CHX in the restaurant industry. Using X as a substitute or shortener has a long history. Medieval scribes sometimes drew a line through the final stroke of an abbreviated word. This...
When an archaeological curator discovered pages of strange code in a secret pocket inside a vintage dress, it set off a years-long search to decipher the seemingly unrelated lists of words. The mystery was solved in 2018, when a researcher at the...
Which is correct to say at the beginning and end of a quotation: quote unquote or quote end quote? Both are used, but the former is far more common. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Quote Unquote vs. Quote End Quote”...
Long distance communication used to be pretty expensive, but few messages have made a bigger dent than William Seward’s diplomatic telegram to France, which in 1866 cost him more than $300,000 in today’s currency. This pricey message...
