Ever find yourself stuck behind someone who walks like he’s behind a plow? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Walking Behind the Plow” Here’s a little more from the folk comparisons in Colorado from the...
Danny from Tallahassee, Florida, works out four or five days a week and wonders about the slang he hears at the gym. Jacked, meaning muscular or pumped up, may be tied to senses of jack meaning to lift, raise, or increase, as with a car jack...
Adam in Indianapolis grew up with his grandmother’s warning not to split a pole, meaning that two companions shouldn’t pass on opposite sides of a lamppost, mailbox, or other street obstacle. The idea is that the physical separation hints at an...
Need a good Scrabble word? Grant shares some of his favorites. Also, why do we call those classic screwball films madcap comedies? And what does it mean to walk in a crocodile? Plus mondegreens, naval slang, learned vs learnt, and “No way...
Did you ever walk in a crocodile? In Britain, a crocodile can be “a group of children walking two by two in a long file.” The phrase came up in an interview with the stylist Vidal Sassoon, who, as a child in London walked in a crocodile...
A listener wonders why his girlfriend remarks “hubba-hubba” when he’s dressing up for the night. The flirty call had its heyday in the 1940s, when World War II soldiers would see a pretty lady walking down the street. Although no one’s sure of the...