Megan in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is a singer, guitarist, and professional whistler. There’s a word for the last of these: puccalo, apparently coined by whistler Ron McCroby. Megan ends the episode with a sibilant sample of “La Vie en Rose.” This is...
Whistling in the dark means trying to keep your courage up when things look frightening or hopeless, like someone whistling a jaunty tune down an unlit hallway. Brent in Indianapolis, Indiana, ran into the phrase while teaching To Kill a Mockingbird...
We all know that lusty two-note whistle directed at an attractive passerby. But how did that particular sound come about? If we trace the earliest record of that sound, known as a “wolf whistle,” we find this 1943 Tex Avery cartoon. This is part of...
“Whistling girls and cackling hens always come to some bad end,” said people in the olden days regarding transgressive women. A variation on this saying pops up in a 1911 book called Folk-Lore of Women by one Reverend Thomas Thiselton-Dyer. This is...
Today’s most popular dog names are Max and Bella. In the Middle Ages, though, dogs would answer to names like Amiable. Or Nosewise. Or even … Clench. ? Is the term redneck derogatory? Some folks proudly claim that name. They say it’s high time they...
Todd in Dallas picked up you ain’t just whistling Dixie from the movie Clue, where it means “you’re not kidding” or “that’s no exaggeration.” The expression traces back to the catchy song first popularized in 1850s blackface minstrel shows, and the...