Investigating the origins of American words, names, quotations and phrases. Over 41,000 entries.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) is credited with: "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." The oft-repeated line appears in Mark Twain:…
Mark Twain (1825-1910) wrote in What Is Man? (1906), a dialogue between a young man and a jaded older man: O. M.: "Well, canary birds can learn all that; dogs and elephants learn all sorts of…
Baseball great Yogi Berra gets credit for many errors of the English language -- unfortunately, this includes credit for many that he never said. A book in 1989 reports that Berra (then a coach for…
American poet Ogden Nash (1902-1971) published "Random Reflections" in The New Yorker magazine on August 8, 1930, and this became, perhaps, his most famous poem: "ON…
Entry in progress -- B.P. Wikipedia: Miss PiggyMiss Piggy is a Muppet character who was primarily played by Frank Oz on The Muppet Show. In 2001, Eric Jacobson began performing the role, although…
Entry in progress -- B.P. Wikipedia: B. KlibanBernard "Hap" Kliban (January 1, 1935 – August 12, 1990) was an influential cartoonist born in New York.(...)LegacyAccording to Art…
Entry in progress -- B.P. Wikiquote: Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie (25 November 1835 - 11 August 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman, a major philanthropist, and the founder of the Carnegie…
"Coattails" are tails on a coat; in political terms, someone who "rides on an elected official's coattails" is someone who gains from another person's gain. For…
"The first generation builds the business, the second makes it a success, and the third wrecks it" is another version of the old saying: "It is only but three generations from…
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) said in 1903: ""Politics are almost as exciting as war, and -- quite as dangerous. (...) Well, in war, you can only be killed once. But in politics many…
"Good government is good politics" was a newspaper headline in 1890 and has been used by many politicians since then. Republican President Herbert Hoover used the line in 1931, Democratic…
Henry J. Kaiser (1882-1967) was an American industrialist who founded the companies Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel and the healthcare organization Kaiser Permanente. The columnist Drew Pearson…
"There are no called strikes in investing" is a statement attributed to investor Warren Buffett, but Buffett's exact words on the television show Adam Smith's Money World in…
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett added some homely advice to the 1989 annual report: "No sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces — never is there just one cockroach in the…
Dennis Gartman is a successful trader who writes The Gartman Letter. "Think like a fundamentalist and trade like a technician" has been his advice since at least the October 1989 issue of…
Entry in progress -- B.P. Wikipedia: Tavern sandwichA tavern sandwich is a sandwich commonly consumed in the Midwest region of the United States, originally consisting of unseasoned ground beef on…
The "salad bar" was announced in April 1937 newspaper articles -- the "bar" being a glorified tea wagon on which salad ingredients were placed. The Boston Oyster House of the…
Entry in progress -- B.P. Wikipedia: Anadama breadAnadama bread is a traditional bread of New England made with white flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour. Origin of nameThere are…
"Billy Goats" are date cookies or date cakes. Some versions claim that the name comes from a time when a woman put the dish on a window sill to cool -- where it was eaten by the…
Cakes were called "depression cakes" as early as 1932. The "depression" referred to the 1930s' economic depression, not a depression in the cake. Recipes differ; the most…