Laura in Tucson grew up hearing her West Virginia grandmother use tight as a tick for a room packed with people, and wondered whether it referred to a blood-swollen tick or the tick of a clock. It’s the blood-fed tick, whose body can become taut and...
A Tucson, Arizona, couple is still laughing about the husband’s misunderstanding of the term soup tureen. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Soup Turbine? Soup Tramline? Soup Tar Ring?” We got a text from Ruth Brown...
Some gems in this week’s mailbag: Following up on our conversation with a caller hoping to promote less-violent alternatives to the phrase kill two birds with one stone, a listener who grew up in India wrote in with one from her native...
Strictly speaking, the verb insure means to “pay a third party to protect against financial loss,” and ensure means “to make sure” or “make certain” that something occurs. For centuries, however, these words were...
Amanda in Tucson, Arizona, dislikes the phrase kill two birds with one stone and wants to popularize a non-violent alternative: feed two birds with one seed. An Alaska listener once suggested the phrase save two birds with one stone, perhaps...
Nate in Tucson, Arizona, says his grandmother from Nova Scotia used to express surprise with the exclamation dear me suz! It goes back to the 1820s and is likely a form of dear me, sirs! Variants include suz alive, law me suz, oh suz alive, and law...
