How many ways can you say: “How are you?” or “What’s new?”
Below is an exhausting (but maybe not exhaustive) list of all the ways I can think of to encounter someone and ask either of these salutatory questions.
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How many ways to say “How YOU doin’?” ?
January 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm (American English, English, Spanish)
Tags: How YOU doin'?, Joey from "Friends", Regional Expressions
Brassed Off
August 23, 2009 at 1:00 am (British English, English)
Tags: Bill Bryson, British, Regional Expressions
Word Fun: Issue No. 3
This one comes from Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way. Below is a list of British terms that Bryson, writing in 1990, challenges his mostly American audience to identify.
Toboggan or not Toboggan…
July 9, 2009 at 11:02 pm (English)
Tags: Hair Dilly, Regional Expressions, Toboggan, Tuke
Word Fun: Issue No. 2
You organize a yard sale for some friends in the neighborhood. Saturday rolls around and a couple of your neighbors bring their stuff to sell. Missy brings her things by and arranges it on the table. Hubert, another neighbor, reads Missy’s sign saying “Hair Dillies – 50¢ each.”
“Huh?” Hubert says with furrowed brow, followed by a shrug. He puts his item on the table next to the hair dillies and scrawls out a sign saying “Toboggan – $2”. A bit later, your other neighbor, Nancy, comes over and gives Hubert’s sign a look of incredulity. She crosses out Hubert’s sign with a large black marker and writes, “Tuke – $2”.
In this scenario, what is a toboggan, a tuke, and a hair dilly? Extra credit if you can guess approximately where these neighbors of yours are from.
The Case of the Case Quarter
June 26, 2009 at 11:29 pm (English)
Tags: Case Quarter, Occupational Terminology, Regional Expressions
Word Fun: Issue No. 1
While in a public space an individual asks that you give them a ‘case quarter’.
You are:
A: Opposing attorneys arguing for the plaintiff and the defense, respectively. He or she is requesting that you pre-divulge a specified percentage of the evidence assembled by your office before ‘discovery’.
B: Both regulars at the laundromat and the guy or lady wants 25¢, only it’s gotta be a quarter with George Washington on it, not two dimes and a nickel.
C: Midshipmen on a merchant vessel. Your coastwise course will cross the Equator very soon and the second mate needs an accounting of the ship’s store before entering foreign waters.
