Ahead of the Curve or Curb?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

My name is Frank Lewis, and I’m calling you out of Crescent, Pennsylvania right now.

I live in Bolivar, Pennsylvania.

All right.

Frank, welcome to the show.

What’s up?

Growing up as a pastor’s kid, we moved around a decent bit.

And I would hear this term, this saying used differently.

It’s getting ahead of the curve or getting ahead of the curve.

So my thoughts were always that it was getting ahead of the curve as in baseball,

But I have heard it used on radio broadcast, TV programming,

As get ahead of the curb, which I couldn’t quite understand,

Potentially, unless it had to do with parking.

So I figured I’d call you all up and see what you had to say about that.

Well, just because it’s hard to hear on audio, we’re going to spell those.

So the two differences are ahead of the curb, C-U-R-V-E,

And ahead of the curb, C-U-R-B, as in boy.

So it’s one versus the other.

And which one do you lean toward when you speak and write?

I always get ahead of the curve because I was in Little League as a child,

And so I knew about curveballs and sort of just figured you had to get your swing ahead of the curve,

Although I was horrible at Little League, so that was probably completely wrong,

And that’s just the one I’ve always used.

Had the knowledge but not the technique. Very familiar to me.

Yeah, definitely.

Well, first of all, Frank, it’s good to talk to a fellow PK.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What’s a PK?

Frank, you want to tell me what a PK is?

A pastor’s kid.

Oh, okay. Gotcha.

Yeah. And you’re right. Ahead of the curb is not very common. In fact, it’s what we call an egg corn, which is a phrase that’s not quite correct, but it still makes kind of sense.

Ahead of the curb, with a B, is sort of like other phrases, like that’s a mute point, when you’re supposed to say moot point.

Absolutely. I’ve heard that used.

Have you? Have you? Okay.

Well, I teach high school, so sometimes they get the sayings, weird.

Oh, yeah.

And you’re there just trading them out.

Yeah.

So, Martha, the best choice then is the curve, C-U-R-V-E version.

Correct. The curve.

And it doesn’t have to do with baseball.

Well, it has to do with the kind of curve that you would see plotted on a graph,

Specifically to represent the power produced by a machine among airplane pilots.

The term power curve shows the relationship between the engine power and the aircraft performance at different speeds.

And I have to say that in addition to having PKs out there, we have a lot of pilots who listen to us,

And so they’re going to be listening very carefully.

They’re going to set us straight, guaranteed.

Yeah. It’s my understanding that in aeronautics, if you’re ahead of the power curve or just ahead of the curve, it means you have more margin to maneuver.

And if you fall behind the curve, that can be dangerous. You don’t want to be behind the curve.

And so we’re talking about, you know, actually plotting on a graph different elements that have to do with speed and performance.

And then it found its way into more mainstream conversation ahead of the curve, particularly in politics in the mid-1960s and 1970s.

That makes a lot of sense, and that actually clears that up a great deal.

Thank you so much.

Well, good.

That’s so interesting.

We’ve got that interface between aerospace and government, you know, in the military.

That’s where those two industries kind of pass their jargon back and forth.

I can totally see it leaping from the engineering side into the political side.

Okay.

I like it.

Thank you so much.

Take care of yourself, Frank.

Thanks for calling, Frank.

Y’all have a great day.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Bye.