MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Does “Just Joshing You” Mean?

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Does “Just Joshing You” Mean?

If anyone’s ever tried to give you a false answer to an earnest question, they may have followed up their response with “I’m just joshing ya!”  But who is this Josh fellow, and why do folks invoke his name when trying to pull the wool over our eyes? The phrase “just joshing you” arose out…

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Is “The Grapevine” and Why Do We Hear Things Through It?

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Is “The Grapevine” and Why Do We Hear Things Through It?

Whenever someone’s sharing some juicy details with you about something of questionable veracity, but they want to try & be cagey about where they got their information, sometimes they’ll say they “heard it through the grapevine.” They might say, “I heard through the grapevine John & Sarah are getting divorced,” or, “I heard through the…

MUNDANE MYSTERIES:  Where Did The Term “86” Come From?

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Where Did The Term “86” Come From?

Pretty much everyone has heard of the expression “86”, which means to do away with something (like, “Yeah, 86 that order!”). But where did it come from & why? Well, there are a few schools of thought as to its origin, though none of them are actually official. Some possibilities… The restaurant business in the…