A caller with a 25-year-old parrot wonders: How much language do birds really understand? Plus, Knock-knock. Who’s there? Boo. Well… you can guess the rest. But there was a time when these goofy jokes were a brand-new craze sweeping the nation...
The term pull-haul, meaning “a verbal conflict,” is heard in New England, particularly Maine. A 1914 citation in the Dictionary of American Regional English alludes to all the pull-hauling among churches when a new congregant moves to...
rark up v. phr. to disturb, annoy, or provoke (someone), especially verbally; to chastise or harangue; to stimulate, motivate, or excite (someone). Occasionally non-phrasal: rark. Also as noun, rark-up or rark, a chastisement, goading, or...

