Sinopsis
A whimsical adventure of idioms and other turns of phrase. Each week, writers Shauna Harrison and Dan Pugh explore the origins and stories behind phrases found in the English language. Along the way, they laugh, geek out, and generally have a good time. Great for anyone likes to have fun with words. Remember, words belong to their users!
Episodios
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134 Up My Alley
01/12/2021 Duración: 31minThis week Shauna and Dan look into the phrase, Right Up My Street, and its counterpart, Right Up My Alley. Plus, a bonus look into the origin story of Sob Sister, an early 20th Century term for women reporters. #BunnyTrails Find the show notes and links to everything we do! Join the community, including our new tier with original digital artwork by Shauna! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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133 A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
24/11/2021 Duración: 25minThis week we learn it's not just a picture that paints a thousand words. Join Shauna and Dan as they explore the other ways a thousand words have been used. Plus, Dan's musical mind disease. And we learn which came first, sliced bread or the toaster. #BunnyTrails Show notes, plus links to everything we do! Join the community, including our new $10 tier with original digital artwork from Shauna! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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132 Murphy's Law
17/11/2021 Duración: 22minThis week Shauna and Dan look at all the things that could have gone wrong, and how they actually did. Well... sort of. We look at the phrase Murphy's Law. We step into the bitter feud that seems to exist here and look at how this phrase from the 1800s got named, maybe, in the 1940s. We just present the facts as we know them. Don't at us. Or do. #BunnyTrails Check out the show notes, or links to everything we do! Join the Community, including our new $10 tier with original digital artwork from Shauna! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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131 Every Rose Has Its Thorn
10/11/2021 Duración: 26minThis week Shauna and Dan explore the phrase Every Rose Has Its Thorn. We learn the Hawthorne rose can cause loss of vision if the torn scratches the cornea of your eye. How is this helpful? Shauna knows. It's medical journals, farthings, calf-boots, and classic rock on this week's #BunnyTrails Join the Community! Get the show notes for free! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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130 Bull in a China Shop
03/11/2021 Duración: 32minShauna and Dan explore the phrase 'bull in a china shop'. They start with silly songs before imagining Cary Grant and the Golden Girls in an old-timey murder mystery. Then it's dance battles between high school principals before settling down with a refined bovine enjoying a spot of tea. Plus a new segment to end the show! #BunnyTrails See the show notes! Join the Community! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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RETRO 55 Dead As a Doornail
27/10/2021 Duración: 21minWERE-PANTHERS?! Dan introduces you to this retro episode on dead as a doornail where he and Shauna discuss the origins of door-nails and alternate phrases like dour as a doornail and dead as a herring. A HERRING!!! Plus, sage building advice from the writings of Bob Villa. Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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129 Silent as the Grave
20/10/2021 Duración: 30minThis week Shauna and Dan look at the history of "Silent as...", such as silent as the night and silent as the grave. Dan shares a creepy story, then messes up the outro. Shauna talks XXX, which is either pornography or roman numerals. #BunnyTrails #AfterDark Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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128 King of the Jungle
13/10/2021 Duración: 29minShauna and Dan explore why the lion is called the King of the Jungle when they don't live in jungles. Turns out, our view of what "jungle" means today may be heavily skewed by the pop culture of the late-1800s and mid-1960s. Looking at you, Rudyard Kipling. Bonus conversations about mockbusters, animated 90s movies, and the great con artist PT Barnum. #BunnyTrails Join the Community! See the show notes! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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127 Penny Dreadful
06/10/2021 Duración: 28minDan is an uncultured swine and did not know what a Penny Dreadful was. Shauna educates him and explores the origins and alternative names to this popular literary phenomenon from the 1800s. Special thanks to Victorian Britain for making this episode possible. #BunnyTrails Join the community and support this educational artform! Find links to everything we do! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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126 Keeping Score
29/09/2021 Duración: 29minThis week Shauna and Dan discuss the concepts of "Keeping Score". From its Old Norse roots to the sports and marriages of today. With appearances by pretentious kitchen appliances, Durant/Durant, and bartenders with a word about P's & Q's. Catch it all on this week's #BunnyTrails! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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125 Brass Tacks
22/09/2021 Duración: 31minThis week Shauna and Dan explore the numerous origin stories of the phrase get down to brass tacks. Does it come to use from rhyming slang or coffin nails? Or perhaps furniture making or clothing materials. Or does it come to us from an older phrase not having anything to do with brass tacks? Find out on this week's #BunnyTrails Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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124 Words the Vikings Gave Us with Grace Tierney
15/09/2021 Duración: 30minThis week Shauna and Dan talk with author Grace Tierney about her new book, Words the Vikings Gave Us. From Bluetooth to Narwhal, the Old Norse language gave or influenced some of English's most well-known words. Plus there's talk of Vikings the TV show, the Viking role in the unicorn mythos, and Norse inspirations in video games. #BunnyTrails Check out Grace: wordfoolery.wordpress.com Words the Vikings Gave Us: amzn.to/3kuDbUr Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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123 Apple of My Eye
08/09/2021 Duración: 29minThis week Shauna and Dan talk about how the pupil is a hole in your eye, but is also sorta shaped like an apple. Kinda? Anyway, you can be the apple of our eyes by listening to the show and sharing it with others! Also, if you are financially able, join our kick-butt club at www.patreon.com/bunnytrailspod Also, check out The Endless Knot, https://www.alliterative.net/podcast Seriously... Aven and Mark are brilliant humans and phenomenal people. Visit them, and tell them we sent you. Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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122 Mind Your Ps and Qs
01/09/2021 Duración: 30minFrom bartenders to school children, clothing to dancing, typesetting to top quality, everyone and their dog has an idea about where this phrase comes from. Shauna and Dan explore the likely origin stories to help debunk the myths and narrow down the options on this week's #BunnyTrails Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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RETRO 29 Beat A Dead Horse
25/08/2021 Duración: 30minDan is sick, so Shauna revisits an episode that originally aired in November 2018! Ever wonder who would anyone want to beat, or flog, a dead horse? Well, wonder no more, as Shauna and Dan explore the progression from a pointless act to money owed, and eventually back to pointless act. Hint... the popularity of the phrase as we use it today has close ties to politics. Who'd have thunk it?!? Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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121 Plenty of Fish in the Sea
18/08/2021 Duración: 22minApparently, there has been plenty of fish in the sea since the late 1500s... which seems weird for everyone except maybe Aquaman and the Incredible Mr. Limpet. Which, coincidentally, are two references we don't even make in the episode. It's time to get back to the dating grind with #BunnyTrails! (Or don't. We love and support you either way.) Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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120 Young Blood
11/08/2021 Duración: 30minShauna and Dan dip into the world of invigorating energy as they explore the phrase Young Blood. Or is that the world of inexperience? Turns out, it's both! They explore this 500+-year-old phrase with the help of hopeful politicians, angry preachers, video games, movies, and songs on this week's #BunnyTrails! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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119 My Bad - A Mea Culpa
04/08/2021 Duración: 28minThis week Shauna and Dan offer no apologies as they explore the phrase "Mea Culpa" and the more recent version "My Bad". Along the way, they discuss loan words, Garfield and Friends, and Albert Einstein. It's classic #BunnyTrails! Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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118 Bob's Your Uncle
28/07/2021 Duración: 31minThis week Shauna and Dan get near the bottom of this elusive phrase. Bob's Your Uncle has several origin stories, but there's always been a missing link between the most popular story and the first time it could be verified in print. Well, until now. Check out this breaking news in the world of 130-year-old phrases! #BunnyTrails Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved
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117 - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
21/07/2021 Duración: 30minFrom Aesop’s Fables to the Bible, Shauna and Dan look at how A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing made it into English and how we still use it today. Along the way, we learn Dan believes in aliens, mostly cause as Shauna says, "Space: There’s a lot of it." Bonus: Dan mixes up baby bears and baby wolves for no apparent reason. Copyright 2021 by The Readiness Corner, LLC - All Rights Reserved