This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, and…kangarooster? They explain the connection between stereotypes and stereos, and why we call the person clearing tables in a restaurant a...
If you’re facing a Hobson’s choice, you don’t really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what’s offered, or else take nothing at all. Martha offers some choice...
The death of Martha’s favorite cat Typo prompts her to reminisce about him, and about one of her favorite ailurophilic words, chatoyant.
If the word is spelled a-s-k, why do so many people pronounce ask as “axe”? Grant has a surprising answer, one that goes all the way back to, believe it or not, the time of Chaucer. This is part of a complete episode.
blood border n.— «She began by citing the history of the drinking age becoming 21 and the problems along the way. In the process of making a unified law, many states set their own drinking ages, according to Meripolski. This set the stage...
dot n.— «Trudeau surveyed Brian’s intact arm. “You’ve got dots.” “Yeah.” Dots are soldier-speak for little beads of shrapnel buried under the skin. Sometimes they take a lifetime to work their way back to the...