What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...
The cardboard cylinder left after the last sheet of toilet, tissue, or wrapping paper comes off the roll has inspired families to make up a lot of names for the tube or the sounds you can make with it. These include oh-ah, oh-ah, drit-drit, dah-dah...
What do you call the cardboard roll inside a roll of toilet paper? Many families have their own name for it, including der der and oh-ah, oh-ah. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Der Der, Oh-Ah” You’re listening to A Way with...
Columnist Lucy Kellaway wrote in the Financial Times about feeling less anxious and fearful in the workplace as she gets older. She concluded that such feelings are bog standard, a British expression meaning “common” or “widespread.” This is part of...
After we spoke a couple weeks ago about eponymous laws, a listener who works as a janitor gave us one of his own: Given any two rolls of toilet paper, the larger roll will get smaller before the smaller gets used up. This is part of a complete...
Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom?