Following our conversation about fossicking for gemstones, a listener in Melbourne, Australia, points out that where he’s from, emu is slang for a person who picks up discarded tickets at a racetrack, hoping to find an accidentally discarded winner...
You dream of writing the great American novel, but to make ends meet, you spend your days writing boring corporate reports. There’s a difference between writing for love and writing for a living — or is there? Does a heyday have anything to do with...
Why do we call our biceps guns? The slang lexicographer Jonathon Green suggests that the metaphor first pops up in baseball around the 1920s, when players referred to their throwing arms as guns. Believe it or not, the early baseball pitchers...
Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom?
fix-it ticket n.— «Apparently, in most states, having one headlight out is not considered a moving violation (in some states it is legal to only have one headlight working), but referred to as a “fix-it ticket.” Meaning, the police officer gives...
Greetings, oh esteemed listeners. This is another newsletter from A Way with Words. On the air this past weekend, we talked a bit about giving nicknames to inanimate objects, druthers, Hispanic vs. Latino, stingaree, and people who can't quite...
