A ham-and-egger job, meaning a weak effort or a dud, comes from boxing, where a ham-and-egger fighter doesn’t have much fight in him, it’s just someone doing it to earn a meal. The idiom goes as far back as at least 1918, when it showed...
Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: “Don’t call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river.” And this truism from Zanzibar:...
Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say “no,” your child hears “maybe,” and if you say “maybe,” she hears “ask again and again,” and “yes” is...
Navy veterans will recognize the two-fingered gesture that looks as if someone’s turning an invisible doorknob. It accompanies the order turn to, meaning “get to work.” How did this handy expression get started? This is part of a...
OTB n.— « The OTB line of boots and topsiders uses footwear technology developed for high-performance boat shoes worn by U.S. Navy SEALs, according to OTB Footwear, of Scituate, Mass. OTB stands for “over the beach,” navy...
A Navy man stationed in Hawaii phones to settle a dispute over the difference between acronyms and initialisms. Here’s hoping he didn’t go AWOL to make the call. This is part of a complete episode.