Kelsey from Washington, D.C., says her family uses the term wishing well eggs to denote the the result when you cut a hole in the middle of a piece of toast, break an egg over the hole, and then fry up the whole thing. She’s also heard people call it egg in a basket, egg in a hole, toad in a hole, pocket eggs, and kaya. This simple dish goes by dozens of different names, including egg in a nest, egg in a cage, egg in a window, egg in a pocket, pirate’s eye, camel’s eye, bull’s eye, bird’s nest, Popeye, One-eyed Pete, One-eyed Jack, cowboy eggs, hocus-pocus eggs, cartwheels, and knothole eggs. 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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