Jill in Shelton, Washington, says that when she lived in Southern California, she understood the word garbage to mean food scraps, with trash referring to everything else collected curbside. Historically, garbage has referred to the wet, disgusting...
David in Portland, Oregon, wants a word for that moment of puzzlement when you’re trying to figure out which bin to use for tossing your recyclables. Discomposted, maybe? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “That Moment of Recycling...
A Twitter beef between Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa has a listener wondering about the phrase talk out the side of one’s neck, meaning to “talk trash about someone.” It’s simply a variation of talking out of the side of one’s mouth. This is part of a...
Do Americans use the same sign language as the British? And what do Japanese people use instead of umm? Plus, why do we vote at polling places? What goes into file 13? All this, a word quiz, commode vs. toilet, saditty and bougie, and cute stuff...
If you’re going to put something in file 13, is it headed to a) a top-secret folder, b) a Christmas stocking, or c) trash can? It’s the trash! This term first became popular in the 1940s during WWII as military slang, and by the late 60s had fully...
If you see the trash can as half full, does that make you an optimist or a pessimist? Since it’s half full of garbage, as opposed to daisies or puppies, it’s questionable. On the other hand, in the tweeted words of Jill Morris: “Some people look at...
