When Mary from Hanover, New Hampshire, was vacationing in Alaska, she picked up a term from the locals: sucker hole. It refers to a patch of sun peeking through the clouds, which leads tourists to assume that the weather is going to clear up. The...
What do you call tourists in your hometown? In New England, they have leaf-peepers. In Wisconsin, it’s berry-pickers or shackers, as in “people who rent cottages.” Coastal areas have pukers, a reference to people who charter boats but then can’t...
In this week’s episode: Just how far back could you go and still understand the English people were speaking? We crank up our trusty time machine to find out. Hint: You’d probably have a tough time getting around in the eighth century, when English...
open winter n.— «This was partly because Leavenworth was enjoying an “open winter”—meaning the severe weather had relented often enough on weekends to grant safe passage to tourists traveling east from Seattle.» —“In the Ruins of a Shop Full of...
gimme cap n.— «They tell you just before you crouch down for the first time in your little touristo huddle, with your gimme cap tucked in your pocket to keep it from flying away.» —“A helicopter, then a hike: Canada’s five-star wilderness” by Joe...
cyclo-tourist n.— «“If it doesn’t show up in the drug controls, then it’s not doping.” The UCI announced that it was targeting 10 or so “men in black”—riders who trained in far-flung, secret locations in black jerseys that disguised their...