Wet Brick - 25 November 2013

<p>What the fox says may be a mystery, but we do know that dogs bark differently around the world. In China, for example, they say not bow-wow but wang wang.  Also, the story behind the British tradition of scrumping. It's not a middle school dance craze, and it has nothing to do with beer -- or does it? Plus, recipe vs. receipt, mash vs. press, housing a beer, all bollixed up, and empty heads make weary bones. <br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />What's an appropriate response when someone knocks on your bathroom stall? How about You can come in, but you can't sit down!<br /><br />Scrumping is a Britishism for "stealing apples off your neighbors' trees." <br /><br />Father Dominic from Chicago wonders when It's a thing became, well, a thing. <br /><br />The word receipt is occasionally used a synonym for recipe, as in "a list of ingredients in a dish and instructions on how to make it." Both words come from the same Latin root, recipere, meaning "to receive." The use of receipt for recipe is old-fashioned and probably won't be around that much longer.<br /><br />Listen closely for the phatic replacements in our Quiz Guy John Chaneski's game of idle chitchat.<br /><br />Ballocks!, an exclamation of frustration or skepticism, is cognate with the word balls, and literally means "testicles." Its use is considered far more racy in Great Britain than in the United States.<br /><br />How do you decide when to use a comma? One strategy is to read your writing aloud and decide what sounds best.<br /><br />A new servant can catch a running deer is a proverb from Afghanistan that aptly describes those zealous recent hires.<br /><br />Few things are slicker than snot on a doorknob. <br /><br />Even one hair has a shadow. This translation of the Latin proverb Etiam capillus unus habet umbram is a reminder that even the smallest thing can have large consequences.<br /><br />If someone's standing between you and the TV, you might ask them Have you been drinking muddy water?<br /><br />To house something, as in to house a beer o