Clint from Dallas, Texas, recalls a peculiar family tradition for giving birthday presents to a child. A giver would hold a gift over the child’s head and recite: Heavy heavy hangover / Thy poor head / What do you wish this donor? The child...
Janie in Gainesville, Florida, remembers her grandmother Othella Mae Hatfield’s Appalachian version of an old anti-wishing proverb: “Wish in one hand and tacky in the other, and tell me which one gets full first.” Tacky here is probably a family...
A Brazilian has been researching why actors use the unlikely expression “break a leg” to wish each other well before going on stage. He suspects it’s a borrowing of a German phrase that means, “May you break your neck and...
blessing way n.— «A “blessing way.” While there was some talk about women only blessings, being a man, I’ve never been to one, and cannot comment. But the onout women only blessings, being a man, I’ve never been to one, and...