Once folks regained consciousness following their turkey coma on the day after Thanksgiving, a large majority of them did what so many red-blooded Americans have done through the years: they went shopping. Last year alone, shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion just in online shopping on “Black Friday”, with that single day bolstering the bottom…
Here in America (or “the colonies”, as our relatives across the pond once called it), it’s not out of the ordinary for folks to use the terms “British” & “English” interchangeably when talking about anything related to the empire that gave us such prized gems as William Shakespeare, The Mini (both Skirt & Car), and…
You’ve probably heard the term “Roger that”. It’s a widespread way of providing confirmation, whether that be between truckers on their CB radios, kids playing with walkie-talkies, or even folks talking face to face. But while it’s easy to use the phrase & understand what it means, have you ever wondered where it came from?…
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…
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…
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…
I’ve always been fascinated by the audio that comes from a plane’s cockpit. But have you ever wondered…“Why is it called a ‘cockpit’ in the first place?” In aviation terms, the cockpit is the control center from which the pilot directs the functions & flight path of an aircraft. Commercial planes have them, as do…
Some folks might be able to pull off a Scottish accent every now & then whenever they try to quote something from Braveheart. But is it possible for someone to ever truly lose his or her native accent & replace it with a new one? Actually…no. The way you speak now will most likely going…
Christmastime…the time of year when everyone seems to be busy buying, wrapping, and giving items to people that we’d like for them to have. What are they called again? Gifts! Or…is it presents? Is there even really a difference between “gifts” & “presents”? Each word arose from a different language family. “Gift” was derived from…
Yesterday marked the start of a new season. But which one? Was it the beginning of Fall? Or the start of Autumn? Which is correct (or, at worst, most correct)? What you call the season we’re now in actually depends on where in the world you’re from and/or whom you ask. In The United Kingdom,…