Jonathan in San Diego, California, remembers his father answering How’s it going? with same old six and eight. The phrasing is very rare, but it may be a family or misremembered variant of the British same old seven and six, meaning things are...
Mark in Long Beach, California, was considering hell for leather as a racing-team name. The phrase means going recklessly at full speed, but its origin is uncertain. A traditional explanation points to a rough horseback ride, with saddle, reins, or...
A Las Vegas, Nevada, listener says her South Dakota-born mother always refers to supper as the last meal of the day and dinner as the largest meal of the day. It’s caused some confusion in the family. Linguist Bert Vaux has produced dialect...
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...
The long popular and newly legal-to-sing “Happy Birthday to You” has always been ripe for lyrical variations, particularly at the end of the song. Some add a “cha cha cha” or “forever more on Channel 4,” but a...
There’s an old children’s ditty that goes, “Mama had a baby and its head popped off,” which you sing while popping the top off of a dandelion or similar flower. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Its Head...