A TV meterologist in Morehead, Minnesota, wonders about the word sky. Is it incorrect to use it in the plural? We often refer to the skies over a large area, as in “the skies over Kansas.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...
When it’s raining and sunny at the same time, Almira from St. Paul, who grew up in Natal, Brazil, says she heard that it was a marriage between a fox and a nightingale. South Africans say it’s a monkey’s wedding. Those images are far happier than an...
A Quebec listener asks: In the phrases it’s a girl, or it’s raining, what exactly is the it here? It’s called the weather it or the dummy it, and it serves a placeholder inserted to make the sentence function grammatically. This is...
This past spring was a cold one, wasn’t it? Some have taken to calling it February 90th. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “February 90th” We had a lot of late cold weather this year, which spawned a term that...
Old Ed’ards sayings (from old Edward, and also spelled old Eddard or old Eddered) were plentiful in the 1930s, when the Lum and Abner radio show was a hit in households across the country. Lum Edwards, who made up half of the cornball duo...
Is that knitted winter cap a beanie, a toboggan, a stocking hat, or a toque? Terms vary by region: beanie refers to a knit cap on the West Coast, toboggan for a hat is mainly Southern, sock hat and stocking hat turn up in the Midwest, around the...