Rachel, who moved from Nebraska to attend school in College Park, Maryland, says her friends were surprised when she referred to the driver of an ice cream truck as the ding ding man. Indeed, this term seems to now be limited largely to Omaha...
Some musicians are having a dispute over the word repeat: If the conductor says, “Repeat this section two times,” how many times should they play the passage? Twice? Three times? This is part of a complete episode.
A trip to the California State Railroad Museum has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual— in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the...
taxi queen n.— «Teenage girls are being used by unscrupulous taxi operators in Chatsworth as “scouts” to identify potential robbery targets. The girls—many of whom are addicted to drugs—are planted in taxis to identify passengers carrying...
coupon train n.— «“A coupon train is a great way for a bunch of different people to share coupons from all different parts of the country.”…It works when a person posts a “train” on a coupon website.…That...
bus n.— «Thami would have insisted on being co-driver or at least conductor of our bus. A bus, in running parlance, is a group of like-minded runners aiming for the same finishing time, who run together to share drinks, information and...