When Kentrell from West Memphis, Arkansas, worked for a granite company, his co-workers who were about to put two pieces of granite together would say I’m going to pull a seam. But why would they use the word pull for the action of pushing together...
Smoko, Australian slang for a smoke or cigarette break, also turns up at a British research station in Antarctica. It may have arrived with Australians working there, or it may simply have been handed from one wintering team to the next, the way...
Edward in Atlanta, Georgia, asks about the origin and uses of blah, blah, blah, the sing-song stand-in for omitted or tiresome talk. A single blah can mean dull or listless, as in “feeling blah,” while repeated blahs often replace words a speaker...
At a Seattle, Washington, tech company, Vivian finds that she and her fellow employees are continually vexed by this question: Does bimonthly mean “once every two weeks” or “once every two months”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Julia in Norfolk, Virginia, wants a verb that denotes the act of making something simple unnecessarily complicated, particularly in a work setting. Some possibilities: complexify, befoul, bemuddle, and embrangle. This is part of a complete episode...
Greg in San Antonio, Texas, who works in the tech industry, says he and his co-workers use the phrase shaving yak hair to describe a monotonous, tedious task. The phrase was inspired by a 1991 segment of The Ren and Stimpy Show, in which the title...
