Watergate salad is a chilled dish of pistachio pudding mixed with whipped cream and pineapple. Although this name capitalizes on the 1970s political scandal associated with Watergate burglary, the salad itself isn’t connected to politics, as it is older than the scandal. Love it or loathe it, Watergate salad goes by lots of other names, including pooflapoo pie, the green stuff, shut-the-gate salad, green goop, green goddess, green fluff, and mean green. Another food name capitalizing on current events is baked Alaska, supposedly named in honor of the 1867 acquisition of Alaska by the United States. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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