If you get an email called “Life in the 1500s,” hit delete! Grant explains that the etymology provided is not entirely accurate. That’s what this show is for. Also, if you’re getting an email that says “Free Money...
Why do we say someone whose career on the ascent is enjoying a meteoric rise? Don’t meteors plummet? For that matter, a caller asks, why do we call “heads up!” when a ball is coming towards us? Shouldn’t it be “heads...
You’ve kept that old gadget in your garage for years now, but you never use it, so you finally throw it out. The very next day, you discover you need it. Shouldn’t there be a word for needing something you just threw away? Martha reports...
A caller who grew up in Australia has a question about wedding-invitation etiquette in the U.S. She wonders: Shouldn’t an invitation refer to a daughter’s “marriage with” the groom rather than a “marriage to” him...
meat bee n.— «In Central Oregon, the two main problem species are the Western yellow jacket (Vespula pensylvanica) and the common yellow jacket (Vespula vulgaris). They are commonly referred to as “meat bees,” Bissell said. They aren’t in...
surgical souvenir n.— «It turns out the collecting and, even, gifting of so-called “surgical souvenirs”—from the staples that seal a wound after surgery to gallstones to surgical screws and pins—isn’t exactly uncommon, or...