So, did Hillary win yet?  Anybody ever figure out what kind of batteries Mitt takes?

Ralph Nader is running?  That’s a bad sign.  Wake me when it’s over.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been away for a while.  On a spiritual quest to determine the meaning of life, if you must know.  And now I’m back, and yes, I know the answer.

But first, Grasshopper, you must mow my lawn.  Using your own gasoline.  Good luck.  The perpetual rain here in Central Cowland has transformed our seven acres of

Continue reading July 2008 Issue

Dear Word Detective:  When I was a child, I frequently heard the word “oodles,” meaning “lots of,” as in oodles of money, oodles of people, even oodles of worries.  I think the word is used less often now, but I wonder about its derivation. — Jim Donovan, Chesterfield, MO.

Hey, you’re right.  Whatever happened to “oodles”?  Time was that “oodles” was a perfectly acceptable way to enumerate an abundance of all sorts of things (”Woolworths has oodles of Slinkys”), but the last time I tried to use it with our accountant in explaining our

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Dear Word Detective:  Mike Royko did several humorous columns about southern California.  I recall one in which he felt that the USA was tilted so all the strange stuff ended up there.  He also coined the moniker “Governor Moonbeam” for Jerry Brown for proposing that California have its own space satellite.  Did he have anything to do with coining the phrase “La La Land”?  (Or is it “LA LA Land”?)  What is the origin of that useful phrase? — Maxwell M. Urata.

Good question, but I’ll have to be careful with my

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Dear Word Detective:  I would like to know if the words “drek” and “dreg” are derived from the same base word.  They mean similar things. — Melissa K.

Good question, and it reminded me of something I learned recently.  This will seem like a complete non sequitur, but bear with me.  From talking to someone who works there, I discovered that the Olive Garden (an “Italian cuisine” restaurant chain in the US), while it charges about nine bucks for a glass of decent wine, charges only twenty-five cents for a quarter-glass

Continue reading Dreck, Dreg

Dear Word Detective:  I read that you are a native or at least previous resident of New Jersey, as I am also.  I was gone for around 10 years, from 1995 to 2005 and upon retuning, I’m hearing a word that just wasn’t part of the vernacular when I left.  The word, “dicey,” is used here in NJ in the sense of things being a bit “touchy” or “critical” or something. But I was wondering if there’s an origin to this word as it applies now.  My guess is it’s like

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Dear Word Detective:  I’ve recently bought a new house and am getting ready to move my furniture, which has given my mom occasion to use (and even write out) the word “chesterfield” about a million times.  I now find myself in a fascinating love/hate relationship with word.  On the one hand, hearing my mom use it is like listening to a nail on a blackboard.  On the other, I am finding it particularly hilarious for my own personal use with friends.  I am wondering if you can tell me where

Continue reading Chesterfield, Sofa, Couch, Settee

Dear Word Detective:  Where does the expression “Boy Howdy!” come from?  Any connection to Howdy Doody? — Carol.

Well, ultimately, yes, of course.  It’s pretty hard to think of a single aspect of modern life that isn’t connected to Howdy Doody in some way.  To those of you born after 1960, “Howdy Doody” may have been just a wildly popular 1950s kiddie TV show, but the rest of us know that time and space began with Buffalo Bob and Clarabell the Clown.  Someone should tell those physicists that they’re wasting

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Dear Word Detective:  From where does the name “pot” come from when referring to marijuana?  I have asked several users of the substance but they seem to have forgotten. — Barry Longyear.

Ba-dum-bump.  I feel like I’ve wandered into someone else’s act here.  But I’m afraid that in making a good joke you’re perpetuating an unfortunate stereotype of potheads as forgetful space cadets.  From what I’ve seen (from a distance, through binoculars, with Melvin the Drug Dog at my side, of course), the drug (or, as the Governator calls it, “the

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Dear Word Detective:  Why is a letter or parcel delivery service called “mail” or “post”? — Ray Earl.

That’s a darn good question.  Speaking of the US Postal Service, I discovered something odd the other day.  When we moved to this little town in rural Ohio a few years ago and I went to rent a Post Office box, the folks downtown gave me Box 1, which had recently been vacated.  Cool, thought I.  But some of the locals apparently thought I had pulled devious strings in Washington (or Zurich) to

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Dear Word Detective:  I am retired but substitute teach at the elementary level in Virginia.  We were using the word “hardship” and one of my fourth graders asked about the word.  I said that I seemed to remember, from a long time ago, that the word had something to do with the many terrible things endured by the Pilgrims, etc., and that the word “hard” had originally been another word.  Maybe it was “heart.”  I just don’t remember!  I have promised the kids an answer and hope you can help me

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Dear Word Detective:  Where did the term “bread and butter letter” originate?  I do know that it is a “thank you” letter for staying in someone’s house. — Leslie Player.

Well, you’re one step ahead of me.  I thought I had never heard the term “bread and butter” used in that sense before, but then I vaguely remembered, in my childhood, hearing an older person using it.  I suppose I should have asked what it meant, but at that age I regarded it as just one more grownup mystery, like

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Dear Word Detective:  My dad, who hails from the coast of Scotland, is a great source of idioms I rarely (if ever) hear from friends and co-workers.  Unfortunately, like most people, he uses expressions with no idea where they actually came from and has only a passing understanding of what they mean.  One of these pet expressions is “a devil of a time” which he uses to describe unpleasant tasks that must be done and put him in a bad mood such as “a devil of a time” fixing

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Dear Word Detective:  I probably should give you praise for the fine work you do sorting out all these word meanings.  I am sure that your “cubbyhole” is overstuffed with them, to say the least, but here goes … thanks so much!  Can you then tell me where this curious hole got its name? — Bruce Gray.

Aw shucks, ‘twernt nothing.  Is “‘twernt” a word?   Hmm.  The Oxford English Dictionary says “’twere” (meaning “it were”) is a fine and proper word (”If it were done,..then ‘twer well, It were done quickly,” Shakespeare,

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Dear Word Detective: I’m a restaurant manager in a hotel and we try to get some random trivia to our staff about our products, etc. A question came up about where the name “Queen Mary” came from, regarding a large rack on wheels used to move plates or food around, in our case in a hotel, but possibly on the boat of the same name? I can’t locate much of anything, or just too much about all other Queen Marys to sift through. — MJW.

There are indeed

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Dear Word Detective: This may be too political for your column, but the word “mercenary” has been defined on various news shows lately as a soldier hired by a foreign country. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, that is “now” correct. The “now” apparently means it wasn’t always so, I guess. Can you give us the history of this word and when it came to mean exclusively a soldier hired into foreign service? — Barney Johnson.

Too political? Nonsense. I thrive on controversy. I’m the guy who wants to outlaw football, remember?

The term

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Dear Word Detective: My wife came across a word we don’t know in a novel she is reading. Here is how it was used: “Gladly, just as soon as a certain arrogant jackdaw is gone from my home.” The word is “jackdaw.” — Rick.

And a fine word it is, too. You don’t even have to know what “jackdaw” means to know it’s an insult. You can somehow tell that it’s never going to crop up in a sentence like “The new hire at work is a brilliant young jackdaw with

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Dear Word Detective: Lately I have pondered the origins of the word “eavesdropping.” My guess is that it came around after too many people fell from the eaves of their houses while attempting to listen in to the conversations being held in the room below. Now I am sure this is not entirely accurate, so perhaps you could explain the more correct, but most likely not as amusing, origins? — Robin Smith.

Oh, I don’t know about that. The real story of “eavesdrop” is a veritable chucklefest, involving building construction, Medieval zoning codes,

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Dear Word Detective: I know when something “gets my dander up,” which is something my mother always used to say, but what does it mean? Also, is it any relation to the cat dander that results from my household of four cats? As an aside, I’ve been told (and firmly believe) that six is the official threshold between generous cat lover and weird sociopathic cat person, so I consider myself safe and healthy. Et tu? — Carl, at work in da Bronx.

Hmm. Is that six cats per person, or a household total

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