Kara in Charlotte, North Carolina, was shopping in New Brunswick, Canada, hoping to find a warm hat. She asked for a toboggan, but the store clerk was incredulous. Depending on where you’re from toboggan can mean either “a long, knitted...
Martha tells the story of the creepy, spooky, surreal, and downright weird Robert Burns poem behind the name for that flat hat called a tam. Read it in translation here. This is part of a complete episode.
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s latest puzzle requires players to guess the last word in a two-line verse. For example: “He’s seven feet tall and big as a tank, The meanest Marine that you’ve ever BLANK.” (Stumped? Take a...
flat flounder n.— «In official and academic circles it is called intellectual dishonesty. On the long wall in Challengers or at the rum shop it is called CROOKEDNESS. At times the people afflicted are called “FLAT FOUNDER”...
FOG n.— «We’ve had penthouses, duplexes and coach houses—and now the latest “must have” property in the housing market is a FOG—a flat over a garage.» —“FOGs—the new property buzzword ” Property...
GUBU adj.— «Conor Cruise O’Brien coined the Gubu acronym in 1983 after former Taoiseach Haughey referred to the discovery of serial killer Malcolm MacArthur in the flat of Government Attorney General Patrick Connolly as “grotesque...