Clean As a Whistle - 24 December 2012

<p>Finding that special bottle of wine can be tough, and even tougher if you're not fluent in winespeak. "Strawberries, rhubarb, and hints of leather are present in the nose." Say what? We discuss the sometimes baffling language of wine. Plus, many folks wish each other "Merry Christmas." But why don't we use the word "merry" with anything else? Anyone ever wished you a "Merry Birthday"? Also, Grant shares some of his picks for Word of the Year 2012, and Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents his annual news of the year Limerick Challenge. And do you pronounce the word scone to rhyme with "John" or "Joan"?<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />What's the deal with winespeak? Can a grenache really taste like strawberries, rhubarb, hints of leather and dutch cocoa, all over the course of a long swig? While it may sound ridiculous, it does pose the challenge: how would you describe a flavor? It's not easy!<br /><br />If something's clean as a whistle, that doesn't mean it's shiny and spotless like a silver whistle in a referee's mouth. The idiom refers to a whistle's sound: That sharp, piercing sound is one of the cleanest things known to the ear.<br /><br />If you say, "He stuck his spoon in the wall," you mean that he died. In German, the person who's deceased has passed along his spoon, and in Afrikaans, he's jabbed his spoon into the ceiling. These expressions reflect the idea that eating is an essential part of life. An article in the British Medical Journal has a long list of euphemisms for dying, from the French avaler son extrait de naissance, "to swallow one's birth certificate," to the Portuguese phrase vestir pijama de madeira, "to wear wooden pajamas."<br /><br />Why must Christmas be merry, but no other holiday? What if you want a merry birthday? While merry's heyday was the 1800s, you still see the term, meaning "exuberant" or "joyful," in phrases like go on your merry way or even merry-go-round. <br /><br />If a fellow's getting married, you might say he's getting himself another rib. What slang do you have for