A North Carolina listener says that when he was a boy and asked for something at a store that his father didn’t want to buy, his dad would reply Not today, Josephine. The origins of this phrase are unclear, although there is a story that it...
MaryAnne from Dallas, Texas, says that sometimes when she or her siblings asked her father how much he spent on something he’d answer A buck three-eighty. It’s one of many similar expressions that allow the speaker to give an approximate...
Paul in Centerville, Massachusetts, says his parents, who hail from Brooklyn, New York, always referred to a fire hydrant as a Johnny pump. This term is largely confined to New York City, and may derive from the fact that these sources of water were...
A third-grader in San Diego, California, wants to know why the first episode of a television series is often titled Pilot. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why are First Episodes of Television Shows Called Pilots?”...
Anna from Columbia, Mississippi, wonders about a phrase she heard as a youngster from her dad: leyores to catch meddlers or leyores to catch meddlers. Sometimes when she’d ask what he was doing, he’d respond with that cryptic saying...
Sue in Santee, California, heard do it up brown in older movies and wondered what it meant. The phrase usually means to do something thoroughly, excellently, or to perfection, likely from the image of browning food just right. Related forms such as...