Kathy from Wichita, Kansas, says her mother was a practical joker who’d laugh off her pranks by saying That’s just the kind of hairpin I am, which means “That’s just the way I am.” The phrase goes back at least to 1874. In his 1889 volume Americanisms, Old and New: A Dictionary of Words, Phrases and Colloquialisms (Bookshop|Amazon), John S. Farmer calls the phrase “an inane exclamation.” The phrase likely stems from the idea of something bent like a hairpin, as in the description of someone’s tendencies, as in That’s my bent, and later the idea of having a crooked or criminal bent. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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