Jeremy calls from Charleston, South Carolina, to say that when he lived in southeast New Hampshire, he was puzzled by the use of a seemingly negative response to indicate something positive. For example, if he said I drive a red car and his listener...
Gerald from Gaspee Point, Rhode Island, wants to know the story behind the term dashboard. Originally a dashboard was wood or leather placed at the front in horse-drawn vehicles to keep the driver and passengers from being dashed with mud, water, or...
On our Facebook group, a listener says he and his son play a game while in the car that involves mispronouncing the names of commercial signage, such as “Kiff-cuh” for KFC, “Goo Dwill” for Goodwill, and “Oh-ficky Duh...
After we puzzled over a caller’s use of the term Jack Roses to signal a sudden shift in conversational topics, Christye from Abilene, Texas, wrote to say that when that happens to her, she says, You didn’t put your blinker on! The word...
Greta and Sean in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are discussing whether the term awhile can mean “in the meantime,” as in Let’s go move your car awhile. It’s certainly used that way in many parts of Pennsylvania, reflecting German...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s puzzle this week was inspired by the name for that two-way radio, the walkie-talkie. If you named other objects using the same repetitive pattern, you’d refer to a pair of socks as feety-heaties. Following that...
