The man who coined this phrase had already been pilloried and imprisoned for writing satire people took literally. So the next time he went after Parliament, he built himself an escape hatch.

On this episode of Appraise The Phrase, Mario and Twenty unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of “if the shoe fits.” It starts in 1705 with Daniel Defoe — printed in London under the pretense that it came from Danzig, credited to an author who didn't exist, because the poem was a direct attack on the English Parliament. Defoe names nobody in it. He just writes that if a member recognizes himself in the satire, that recognition is the reader's act, not the writer's accusation.

Twenty's read: he invented the disclaimer.

Then the phrase crosses the Atlantic. May 1773, the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, a city weeks from tearing itself apart over the Tea Act, in the one genre where anonymity did the most work. And somewhere in that crossing, the object changes.

Also: the Cinderella theory and why it doesn't hold, the 1773 subtweet, what Google didn't bother correcting, and a Dictionary of Misinformation entry that will make you check your own vocabulary.

0:00 Green Goblin, Family Matters, And A Late Submission
1:03 The ATP Intro Theme
1:42 What's Good: LA, Venice Beach, And Morning Walks
7:02 Shout Out To Mo And The Event
8:01 Today's Phrase: If The Shoe Fits
10:25 Twenty: It Went From Positive To Negative
13:07 Mario Wrote This Episode From A Negative Place
14:27 Shout Out To Kayla And Kinara Books
15:27 Nobody Says “Wear It” Anymore
16:19 You Already Have The Shoe On
16:59 Confirm The Meaning: Four Dictionaries This Time
18:00 The Last-Minute Submission Always Wins
21:33 Which Ones Are Negative And Which Are Neutral
22:05 Twenty Picks Two Dictionaries — A First
22:53 Unveil The Origin: 1705, Daniel Defoe
23:12 The Green Goblin Problem
24:41 Printed In London, Credited To A Man Who Didn't Exist
26:09 Defoe Had Already Been Pilloried For Satire
27:13 A Legal Deniability Device
28:56 “He Invented The Disclaimer”
29:38 Have You Ever Jumped In Front Of A Bullet Nobody Fired?
31:27 You Gotta Show Me My ID In The Film
35:14 Are You Slower To Anger Now?
36:07 Why A Point Of No Return Is A Good Thing
37:28 Crashing Out, And The Flu Game Meme
38:43 May 1773: The Cap Becomes A Shoe
40:23 The Defensive Character Genre
41:26 Hugh Gaine, The Printer Who Stayed Neutral
42:46 Influence Before Influencers
43:00 The Tea Act And A City About To Break
44:41 The Original Subtweet
45:22 Twenty's Twitter Era
50:25 The Cinderella Hypothesis
52:00 Why The Case Against It Is Stronger
54:50 Google Didn't Correct The Story Either
56:33 Pop Culture Impact: The Top Four
57:30 #1 Hamilton, Cabinet Battle #1
58:37 The Appraisal
1:00:45 Dictionary Of Misinformation: The Subconscious Isn't Freudian
1:02:23 Closing Thoughts
1:02:55 Shop, Partners, And Credits

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Daniel Defoe, The Diet of Poland (1705) · Daniel Defoe, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702) · New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, May 1773 · Hugh Gaine, printer · Alexander McDougall writing as “Hampden,” New York Journal (1773) · Giambattista Basile, Pentamerone (1634) · Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854) · Hamilton, “Cabinet Battle #1” · Spider-Man (2002) · Family Matters

COMMENT: Have you ever gotten defensive about something nobody was actually saying about you? And settle this — is a subtweet a disclaimer or a coward move?

ATP SHOP — every phrase gets a grade. Some of them get a mug.
appraisethephrase.com/shop

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The first person to say “against the grain” was lying. Not figuratively. He was coaching other people to lie, and the phrase was the lie.

On this episode of Appraise The Phrase, Mario and Twenty are joined by Kayla, founder of Kinara Bookstore in Tulsa, to unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of “go against the grain.” It debuts in Shakespeare's Coriolanus around 1607, in the mouth of Sicinius — a tribune coaching Roman citizens to claim they'd been pressured into their vote, and that speaking up went against the grain. They were doing exactly what authority wanted. The first recorded figurative use of the phrase describes someone going with the grain. Mario's name for it is inverted debut.

And the carpentry story everyone repeats? Every source on earth says this comes from woodworking. Gary Martin appears to be the only person who actually checked, and none of the early citations reference wood at all — the carpentry explanation only shows up after Shakespeare. It's not what you know. It's what you can prove.

Also: why the play itself is about grain, how a phrase gets rationalized backwards, what clickbait did to writing, and Kayla on opening a bookstore in the gap left when Tulsa's only Black bookstore closed.

Value is in the eye of the appraiser.

0:00 Gladiator, Holograms, And What You Can Prove
0:51 The ATP Intro Theme
2:30 Introducing Our Guest
3:44 Kayla On Founding Kinara Bookstore In Tulsa
7:17 Who Decides What The Rules Are?
15:11 Confirm The Meaning: Merriam-Webster
18:11 Twenty Would Have Written It Differently
22:28 Unveil The Origin: 1607, Coriolanus
23:33 Our First Hologram Guest Should Be Shakespeare
23:53 Sicinius, The Tribune, And The Coached Lie
25:47 The Play Is Literally About Grain: The Corn Riot
28:34 Inverted Debut: The First Use Was Inauthentic
33:47 Kayla Does Not Fly Southwest
37:54 Every Source On Earth Says Carpentry
38:45 Gary Martin Is The Only One Who Checked
39:51 Retroactive Etymological Rationalization
42:16 Seed Oils, And Things That Sound True
44:34 What Clickbait Did To Writing
51:39 Is Any Of This Real? Clickbait Meets AI
53:20 À Rebours, Bad Religion, And Garth Brooks
55:44 Evaluative Reversal: When The Act Stops Mattering
57:36 Do You Own “Going Against The Grain”?
58:44 Building A Space For Us, By Us
1:00:40 Twenty: Save The Last Dance
1:04:23 The Phrase As A Banner People Wave
1:08:23 The Appraisal: Power
1:11:12 Speed
1:12:07 Preference, Handed To The Guest
1:13:31 Dictionary Of Misinformation
1:15:04 The Kremlin Is Not A Building
1:16:11 Where To Find Kinara Bookstore
1:17:43 Shop, Credits, And Where To Find Us

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (c. 1607–08) · Plutarch, via North's translation · Merriam-Webster · Dictionary.com · Gary Martin, Phrase Finder · J.-K. Huysmans, À rebours (1884), published in English as Against the Grain · Bad Religion, Against the Grain (1990) · Garth Brooks, “Against the Grain,” written by Bruce Bouton, Larry Cordle and Carl Jackson · Marion Nestle, NYU · Gladiator (2000) · Training Day (2001) · Save the Last Dance (2001)

GUEST: Kayla, founder of Kinara Bookstore — Tulsa's pop-up bookstore centering Black, brown, queer and disabled readers. Instagram, Threads and TikTok @kinara.books · kinarabookstore.com

COMMENT: Have you ever actually gone against the grain, or did you just say you did? And settle this for us — open seating or assigned?

ATP SHOP — every phrase gets a grade. Some of them get a mug.
appraisethephrase.com/shop

THE BRACKET — the board keeps filling. Tournament comes March 2027.

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Everybody thinks medieval pubs had cups with whistles baked into them. You blew the whistle, you got a refill. It's a great story and somebody made it up.

On this episode, Mario and Twenty are joined by Myron to trace the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of "wet my whistle." The whistle was never an object. It was your throat; a usage running through Beaumont and Fletcher, where you could "cut your whistle," and all the way back to Chaucer in 1386. The cup came later, invented backwards to explain a phrase people no longer understood. Mario's term for it is retroactive prop invention.

Then there's the H. "Whet your whistle" shows up in Thomas Flatman's Belly God in 1674 and never leaves, because whet sounds more literate than wet — a 350-year hypercorrection that people still defend today.

Also: the requirements for a proper swig, why nobody can agree on what a thumbs-up means, the dietary guidelines dropping their actual numbers, medieval life as imprisonment by civilization, and a Dictionary of Misinformation entry that will change how you sit in meetings.

0:00 The Departed, Cranberry Juice, And A Phrase We Might Have To Retire
0:44 The ATP Intro Theme
1:33 Myron's In The Building
1:58 Spoke Too Soon About The Sports Teams
8:39 The Requirements For A Proper Swig
9:24 Preferably Over 32 Ounces
11:45 Ain't Nobody Going Out For Cranberry Juice
14:03 Myron Has Been In The Store Too Long
16:41 Unveil The Origin: Chaucer, 1386 (Content Warning)
18:00 "So Was Her Jolly Whistle Well Wet"
22:25 The Northern Clerks And Tolkien's Paper On The Reeve's Tale
26:41 Rules We Enforce And Don't Follow
27:57 Text Me, Don't Call Me
29:00 Don't Read My Texts In A James Earl Jones Voice
29:08 The Thumbs-Up Problem
33:20 Emoji Etiquette In The Group Chat
34:24 Confirm The Meaning: Beaumont And Fletcher, "Cut Your Whistle"
36:39 Thomas Flatman's Belly God, 1674
37:19 Wet vs. Whet: 350 Years Of Trying To Sound Smarter
39:25 The Dietary Guidelines Dropped The Actual Numbers
43:39 Myron Amends His Take
46:07 The Myth: Cups With Whistles Baked In
47:05 Twenty: Medieval Life Was A Prison
49:10 Retroactive Prop Invention
50:56 "Am I Gonna Have To Stop Saying Wet My Whistle?"
52:43 Myron's Hit List: It Is What It Is
53:51 Why Won't You Explain Your Real Reasoning?
56:16 Capacity, And Having Your Own Stuff Going On
59:25 Using A Phrase To Avoid Confrontation
59:52 Pop Culture Impact: The Top Four
1:01:47 #1 Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
1:02:19 The Appraisal
1:07:30 Dictionary Of Misinformation: Meeting Minutes
1:09:50 Shop, Credits, And Where To Find Us

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Reeve's Tale (c. 1386) · John Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse (1530) · The Towneley Plays · Beaumont and Fletcher · Thomas Flatman, Belly God (1674) · Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews (1742) · J.R.R. Tolkien, "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale," Transactions of the Philological Society · Michael Quinion, World Wide Words · The Departed (2006) · To Have and Have Not (1944) · Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

COMMENT: Wet or whet — which are you, and are you prepared to defend it? And settle this for us: what does a thumbs-up actually mean?

ATP SHOP: every phrase gets a grade. Some of them get a mug.
appraisethephrase.com/shop
THE BRACKET: the board is filling up. Tournament comes March 2027.
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On this episode of Appraise The Phrase, Mario and Twenty trace the origin of "in the nick of time" and explains how it started out as pudding time.

It starts in 1546 with John Heywood's book of proverbs, where arriving "in pudding time" meant showing up right as dinner started — because in the 16th century, pudding was savory, closer to sausage than dessert, and it was served first.

Then pudding drifted to the end of the meal, and the phrase stopped making sense. The phrase never changed. The world did.

Enter the nick: a notch cut into a tally stick, the wooden receipts the English Exchequer kept for centuries. And in 1834, when officials finally burned the obsolete sticks in the furnaces beneath the House of Lords, they burned down Parliament with them. The thing that gave us the phrase went up in smoke. The phrase survived.

Also: Merriam-Webster watching too much Indiana Jones, referential collapse, the leap second being abolished right now, what you still say about yourself that stopped being true, and why we all keep the bags under the sink.

0:00 Indiana Jones, Janice, Drake, And The Nick Of Time
0:51 The ATP Intro Theme
1:37 What's Good: Football Season Is Here
2:34 The Dolphins, Malik Willis, And Quarterback Fit
9:07 Yes, This Is Still A Word Show
10:28 Today's Phrase: In The Nick Of Time
13:14 Twenty: This Phrase Is Janice From Accounting
15:03 Confirm The Meaning: Merriam-Webster vs. Cambridge
16:01 Trim The Fat: What A Definition Should Actually Do
16:53 Merriam-Webster Has Been Watching Too Much Indiana Jones
19:03 Unveil The Origin: Before The Nick, There Was Pudding Time
20:44 1546: John Heywood's Book Of Proverbs
21:46 Pudding Was Sausage — And It Came First
22:53 How Pudding Became Dessert And Broke The Phrase
24:55 Referential Collapse: When The World Leaves A Phrase Behind
26:00 What Do You Still Say About Yourself That Stopped Being True?
30:37 Performative Caring In The Social Media Era
31:37 Mario: I Still Tell People I'm An Athlete
33:43 Twenty Has Been Avoiding Fences On Purpose
36:29 The Tudors Want Something Sharper: Golding, Ovid, And "Nick"
37:58 What Even Is A Notch? The Exchequer's Tally Sticks
39:13 So The Teachers Were Wrong
40:05 The Leap Second Is Being Abolished
42:12 What Would You Let Drift, And What Would You Never Let Go?
46:42 1834: The Nick Burns Down Parliament
49:05 Turner Painted It From A Boat On The Thames
49:24 Infrastructural Afterlife: A Fossil Metaphor
49:54 What Have You Held Onto Past Its Usefulness?
50:38 Keep The Bags Under The Sink, Throw Away The Boxes
52:27 Pop Culture #4: Every Film Called In The Nick Of Time
53:22 #3: The In The Nick Of Time Clock In Newport, Wales
53:51 #2 Charles Dickens / #1 Turner's The Burning Of The Houses Of Lords And Commons
54:59 The Appraisal: Impact
56:04 Speed
57:30 Preference
59:58 Dictionary Of Misinformation: Typhoid Mary
1:00:30 Closing

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
John Heywood, A Dialogue Conteynyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue (1546) · Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732) · Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses (1565–67) · Caroline Shenton, The Day Parliament Burned Down (2012) · J.M.W. Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (1835) · Charles Dickens, speech to the Administrative Reform Association (1855) · IERS Bulletin C · Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) · Wanted (2008)

COMMENT: What do you still say about yourself that stopped being true? And what are you holding onto long past its usefulness — bags under the sink count.

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Everybody knows what it means. Almost nobody can tell you where it came from...and that turns out to be the whole story. #OnTheBackBurner #Etymology #WordOrigins

On this episode of Appraise The Phrase, Mario and Twenty unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of ""on the back burner,"" the youngest phrase this show has ever appraised. Before gas, American stoves didn't have burners at all. They had eyes — removable lids over a single firebox — so cooks were back-burning constantly, by physics, with no words to describe what they were doing. The concept sat around for a century waiting on the technology to name it.

Then the gas range arrives in the 1920s and the phrase still doesn't show up until 1945, with Oxford holding out until 1963. Why the lag? Because a thing has to get boring before it can become a figure of speech.

Also: the two twists that make this phrase strange — a name that may run backwards, and an American metaphor whose earliest written evidence sits in the Times of London. Plus gas stove bans in San Francisco, Colorado, New York and Virginia, what you were doing for years before you had a word for it, the gap-filling friend, and a Dictionary of Misinformation entry about what robins are actually doing on your lawn.

Then we grade it. It does not go well.

Value is in the eye of the appraiser.

0:00 If Billy Don't Say It, It Ain't No Phrase

0:57 The ATP Intro Theme

1:45 What's Good: The Holiday We Won't Timestamp

5:08 DC Heat vs. Southern Heat

7:08 When Great Directors Have To Explain Their Own Movies

8:10 Today's Phrase: On The Back Burner

9:26 Twenty's Take: Not My First Choice, But It Gets The Job Done

10:15 Mario's Take: Why It Feels Like Disrespect

12:17 A Question For The Chefs: Are The Burners Actually Weighted?

13:13 Confirm The Meaning: Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, Collins

14:25 Priority vs. Importance

18:00 The Youngest Phrase We've Ever Done

18:36 Unveil The Origin: When Stoves Didn't Have Burners

20:29 No Word For It Because There Was Nothing To Name

21:00 The Lexical Gap

21:47 What Were You Doing For Years Before You Had A Word For It?

22:04 Twenty: Humor As A Defense Mechanism

25:32 Older Generations Didn't Have ""Depression."" They Had Melancholy

26:25 The Happiest Beat About Fighting Off Depression

29:47 The 1920s: The Appliance Arrives, The Phrase Doesn't

30:53 Gas Companies Lose Lighting And Move Into The Kitchen

32:30 1945 To 1963: Why The Phrase Took 30 Years To Land

33:22 Metaphor Lag: A Thing Has To Get Boring First

34:20 Gas Stove Bans: San Francisco, Colorado, New York, Virginia

37:13 Should A Restaurant Kitchen Be Told To Go Electric?

39:53 Take Your Ass Outside And Grill

40:38 Twist One: The Name May Run Backwards

42:37 Twist Two: An American Phrase First Printed In London

44:01 Is This Phrase An Industry Plant?

45:19 Back-Formation And The Missing Paper Trail

46:45 The Plan-Making Friend And The Gap-Filling Friend

50:22 Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

53:13 Pop Culture Impact: Only A Top Three This Time

54:49 #2 The Burner Branch: Burner Phone, Burner Account, Burner Email

55:40 #1 The Wire, Season 3, Episode 7: ""Back Burners""

57:09 The Appraisal: Impact

58:58 Speed

1:00:50 Preference

1:01:26 This Phrase Is Boston Market

1:02:09 Dictionary Of Misinformation: Birds Do Not Listen For Worms

1:04:50 Closing Thoughts

1:05:08 Shop, Credits, And Where To Find Us

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

Merriam-Webster · Cambridge Dictionary · Collins Dictionary · Oxford English Dictionary · Cambridge English Corpus · The Times of London · The Wire, ""Back Burners,"" S3E7, aired November 7, 2004 — teleplay by Joy Lusco Kecken, story by David Simon & Joy Lusco Kecken, directed by Tim Van Patten

COMMENT: Lefties — do you actually use the front left burner? And what's something

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Everybody pictures a locomotive. Everybody is wrong.On this episode of Appraise The Phrase, Mario and Twenty unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of "train of thought" — a phrase that shows up in Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan in 1651 and John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1690, roughly 165 years before locomotives existed. The railroad imagery in your head? That's folk etymology doing what folk etymology always does: replacing the real reason with a better story.Along the way: why every major dictionary fumbles the definition, what "brain rot" and "train of thought" have in common as conceptual metaphors, how ideological sedimentation means you're often repeating arguments you weren't alive for, and why AI reasoning is the modern version of the same problem. Plus Twenty loses his actual train of thought live on the mic, which may be the most on-topic thing to ever happen on this show.Also discussed: Damon Darling getting banned from Walmart for buying strangers' groceries, the I, Robot Sonny conspiracy, the Mandela Effect hill we will die on, and why red Kool-Aid is not strawberry.Then we appraise it. Power grade, Speed grade, Preference. And we close with the Dictionary of Misinformation on the Thanksgiving turkey you think the pilgrims ate.Value is in the eye of the appraiser.0:00 Sherlock Holmes' Deductions, AI, And Someone Else's Train Of Thought1:08 The ATP Intro Theme1:52 What's Good: Back To School And Breaking The Monotony4:19 Today's Phrase: Train Of Thought4:41 Twenty's Take: You Only Say It When You've Lost It6:10 Mario's Take: The Phrase Paints A Picture7:25 Confirm The Meaning: Merriam-Webster vs. Cambridge vs. Dictionary.com10:15 Why "A Path Of Reasoning" Can't Be The Definition10:44 Unveil The Origin: "Train" In The 14th Century Meant To Drag Or Trail12:50 Conceptual Metaphors And Brain Rot (Oxford's 2024 Word Of The Year)13:50 Twenty Loses His Train Of Thought On An Episode About Train Of Thought14:59 Brain Rot Confessions: Instagram, Love Island, Love Is Blind20:11 Walmart Banned Damon Darling For Buying People Groceries22:36 1651: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, And The First Recorded Use23:57 Ideological Sedimentation: Inheriting Arguments You Never Had26:16 I, Robot: "Can A Robot Write A Symphony?" "Can You?"27:00 The Sonny Conspiracy: The Actor They Refused To Promote31:45 Why AI Gets Things Confidently Wrong32:14 Believed With Our Whole Chest: Y2K, The Mayans, And Flying Cars36:24 1690: John Locke, Association Of Ideas, And "Food For Thought"38:43 Train Of Thought Predates The Railroad By 165 Years40:11 "Sounds Like A Train To Me": How The Locomotive Got Its Name41:52 Edison Slander, Tesla, And The Prestige45:28 Institutional Formalization And Gen Z Slang Creep47:30 Folk Etymology: When The Better Lie Wins48:55 The Mandela Effect And The Shazam Hill We Will Die On50:55 Confidently Wrong: Red Kool-Aid Is Not Strawberry53:47 Pop Culture #1: Pixar's Inside Out54:44 #2: Sherlock Holmes And Guy Ritchie's Slow-Motion Deductions58:14 #3 The Greatest American Hero / #4 The Lost Train Of Thought59:28 The Appraisal: Power Grade And Impact Grade1:01:36 Final Grade1:02:37 Dictionary Of Misinformation: The Thanksgiving Turkey Myth1:04:41 The Watch List And Closing Thoughts1:05:48 Shop, Credits, And Where To Find Us

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651) · John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) · David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) · Pixar's Inside Out (2015) · Sherlock Holmes (2009, dir. Guy Ritchie) · I, Robot (2004) · The Prestige (2006) · Slumdog Millionaire (2008) · The Greatest American Hero, "Train of Thought" (1982) · The Lost Train of Thought, The Seems series (2009)

COMMENT: Which pop culture moment captures a train of thought best — Inside Out or Sherlock? And what's a folk etymology you defended with your whole chest before you found out it was wrong?

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Where does ""wet my beak"" actually come from? We trace it from a 19th-century Sicilian grain custom to The Godfather — and yes, we get into He Got Game too. #AppraiseThePhrase #Etymology #WordOrigins #WetMyBeak #TheGodfather

Mario and Twenty unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of ""wet my beak."" The trail starts in 19th-century rural Sicily, where grain farmers were expected to give estate guards a little extra at harvest — ""fari vagnari lo pizzu,"" literally ""to wet the beak"" — the imagery being a bird dipping in to drink, not gorging itself. That custom got carried across the Atlantic and turned into something sharper: Mario Puzo used the exact Sicilian phrase in his 1969 novel The Godfather, putting it in the mouth of the extortionist Fanucci as he shakes down a young Vito Corleone. Coppola's Godfather Part II dramatized the same scene in 1974 — and the guys dig into whether the custom's original ""fairness"" survived the trip from grain tithe to mafia protection money.

Along the way: three dictionary definitions (Free Dictionary, Wiktionary, Urban Dictionary), a debate about whether extortion can ever be ""earned,"" a Power Grade and a Speed Grade, and a Dictionary of Misinformation segment busting the myth of who actually ""invented"" the wheel. Stick around for the He Got Game breakdown — once you hear how the guys connect Uncle Bubba's ""let me wet my beak"" line to this phrase, you won't hear it the same way again.

0:00 – He Got Game Uncle Bubba Opener

1:20 – Intro & Catching Up

Confirm The Meaning

10:34 – Introducing ""Wet My Beak"" + Dictionary Definitions

Unveil The Origin

18:25 – Origin: 19th-Century Sicilian Grain Custom

30:31 – Literary Origin: Mario Puzo's The Godfather (1969)

34:19 – Is Extortion Ever Fair? A Real Debate

45:44 – Cinematic Origin: The Godfather Part II (1974)

Storytime

29:16 – The ""I Can't Stress This Enough"" Delivery Bit

50:45 – Personal Reflection: The Pettiest Toll You've Ever Collected

Assess The Value

55:55 – Power Grade

58:04 – Speed Grade

59:53 – He Got Game, Revisited

1:02:05 – Dictionary of Misinformation: Who Invented the Wheel?

1:04:11 – Outro & Shop

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ABOUT APPRAISE THE PHRASE

Appraise The Phrase is a weekly podcast from the Underdog Podcast Network where the hosts unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of the everyday phrases and idioms we all use without ever asking where they came from. Each episode ends with a Power Grade and a round of the Dictionary of Misinformation, debunking a popular word-origin myth.

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