Juice in Genoa, New York, remembers her mother used to say I am so mad I could spit nickels. It’s one of several variations on the idea of being angry enough to spit, period, or to spit something specific, such as spit tacks, spit nails, spit...
Mad money is the emergency cash a woman tucked away to get home safely if an evening out went badly. These days, it’s largely been replaced by cell phones. This is part of a complete episode.
The saying a bad penny always turns up has been turning up in English since the 15th century, when counterfeit pennies would often surface in circulation. As pennies have lost their luster, the phrase has lived on; see the line “Don, my bad...
On a recent episode of Mad Men, a character said “keep me in the loop.” Was that phrase really around in the 1960s? This is part of a complete episode.
Howdy! In this week's archive episode: Do you know the meaning of "McGimpers"? How about "geetus"? We discuss these and other examples of underworld slang from the 1930s. In this show, crime novelist James Ellroy stops by to...
If someone gives you crazy props or mad props, they’re congratulating you. A Chicago college student wants to know what props means in this context. This is part of a complete episode.