Idaho Stop
The "Idaho stop" allows cyclists to treat a red light like a stop sign, and a stop sign like a yield sign. The law was developed in 1982 by Carl Bianchi, then the Administrative Director…
Glass Cliff
Women often break the "glass ceiling" to get a job. However, when women get an executive job, they often face a "glass cliff." As explained in "Introducing... the glass…
“California has four seasons—Earthquake, Fire, Flood and Drought”
Southern California doesn't have the four seasons, but many residents joke that it does have four seasons: eathquake, fire, flood and drought. The joke has been cited in print since at least…
“Poetry is proof that rhyme doesn’t pay”
"Why are poets poor? Because rhyme doesn't pay," an old joke has it, punning on "crime doesn't pay." "Afterthought: Who said rhyme doesn't pay?" was…
“The odds are good, but the goods are odd” (male-female ratio)
Male-to-female ratios are disproportionate at some schools (such as engineering schools or former women's colleges), but heterosexual students note that a large proportion of geeks and gays…
“Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine”
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people” is an old saying. New York-based author Fran Lebowitz changed this saying a bit in Social Studies…
“Ten percent of my ashes shall be handed to my agent” (show business joke)
A popular show business saying is that an agent owns a piece of his or her client. The following joke was cited in 1948: "We pass along Edith Gwynn's Hollywood Reporter quote of Van…
Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World)
"Liberty Enlightening the World" is the official name, but "Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" was so frequently used that the famous statue in New York harbor is now…
Statue of King George III (Bowling Green; erected 1770, destroyed 1776)
An equestrian statue of King George II (1738-1820) was erected in Manhattan's Bowling Green in August 1770. A fence placed there in 1771 can still be seen today. Following the first reading in…
“He was addicted to cowboy line dancing and entered a two-step program”
A popular joke is told about the Texas two-step: "My best friend became addicted to country line dancing. It got so bad he had to enter a two-step program." Versions of the joke date to…
Columbia University’s Alma Mater (Mary Lawton, model)
"Alma Mater" is a famous sculpture at Columbia University, installed in 1904 in front of the Low Memorial Library (formerly the campus library building). The sculptor Daniel Chester…
Rockefeller Center’s Atlas (modeled after Benito Mussolini?)
The Greek mythological figure of Atlas holding up the heavens is a 1937 sculpture by Lee Lawrie (1877-1963) that stands in front of the International Building of Rockefeller Center, across the…
Siegel-Cooper’s Statue of the Republic (Minnie Clark, model)
The Statue of the Republic, by sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) was the largest and most symbolic of the Chicago Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) of 1893, Irish-born Minnie Clark,…
Statue of Justice or Lady Gotham (Batman’s Statue of Liberty)
The Statue of Justice (or Lady Gotham) is a statue similar to New York City's Statue of Liberty that is located in the fictional Gotham City and appears in the movie Batman Forever (1995),…
“Tax the people and tax with care…” (tax poem)
"Tax the people and tax with care..." is the first line of a famous tax poem, credited to Don Lupton of the Denver (CO) Post in 1921. The form of the poem probably borrows from the famous…
NOSH (Nike, O’Reilly, Starbucks and Home Depot)
Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research invented the acronym "NOSH" (Nike, O'Reilly, Starbucks and Home Depot) in November 2015 to describe four important companies in the S&P…
Nifty
Entry in progress -- B.P. "Nifty" is used in the financial terms "Nifty Fifty" and "Nifty Nine." "Nifty" is said in Wikipedia to mean "National Index…
“Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax”
Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958), president of the General Motors Research Corporation, was cited in 1938: "Thinking is one thing in the world upon which no one has ever been able to put a tax…
Nifty Fifty
"Nifty Fifty" was a term popular in early 1970s to represent fifty growth stocks, with high price-to-earnings ratios, that drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The "Nifty…
Nifty Nine
The name "Nifty Fifty" referred to 50 popular large-cap stocks on the New York Stock Exchange in the 1960s and 1970s that were regarded as the major movers of the Dow Jones Industrial…