All Chicken But the Gravy

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Ryan. I’m calling from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hi, Ryan. Welcome.

Hey there, Ryan.

Hey, I, so I went to boot camp in Virginia Beach, and I had a drill instructor who would tell me, it’s all chicken but the gravy.

And I’m familiar with, it’s all gravy, and he never seemed angry when he told it to us, but it seemed a strange thing to say.

I’ve said it before, and nobody’s really responded as well as I thought they would.

What were the circumstances? What was happening when he said this?

There would be some minor slight, or there would be somebody who’s not falling in formation and us getting angry with him.

He would just remind us that, you know, don’t be upset. It’s all chicken but the gravy.

Do you know anything about where he was from?

I don’t. I was young, and I’m assuming he’s a southerner himself, because I can’t imagine anybody else saying something like that.

What are you saying about people from the north?

Oh, that they don’t often refer to gravy in normal conversations.

Unless it’s pasta with that red sauce on it in Jersey.

Nice. That’s true. He’s probably from the South, right?

The data show that the term Southern, it’s not that common, but it has existed for, I think I’ve got a use here from 1948.

But I’m trying to understand the meaning of it.

Would you say it like, oh, things aren’t as bad as you think they are, or hey, close but no cigar?

I’m not quite sure I understand the meaning of it, how he would use it.

It’s all good. Is that what he’s saying, basically?

My impression is if it’s all chicken but the gravy, the chicken’s good, and the gravy’s even better.

Yes, exactly.

I think that sounds right.

That sounds exactly right.

And it jibes with what I see here.

If you do some digging around on this, and it doesn’t come up very often, so you might spend some time.

In 1969, there was an exchange, I believe it was in the congressional record, between Admiral Connolly and somebody, the chairman of this panel that’s interviewing him says, is kind of upset or chagrinny.

He’s like, you told me everything was chicken but the gravy.

And then Admiral Connolly replies, well, I guess I got the rose-colored glasses on, but I really think we are going to get around these things.

So in other words, the person interviewing the admiral said, you said everything was great.

And the admiral says, well, maybe it wasn’t as great as I thought.

So that gives me the idea that this expression is used in a situation where you’re trying to say that something is positive, something is good.

The admiral? Was this the girl in Vietnam?

Are we talking about chicken and gravy?

Well, the term goes back quite a ways.

And I was wondering, it was interesting that it should come from some branch of the military.

I was wondering if this was a kind of thing that some of our Marines who are listening to the show, we have tons of Marines on both coasts listening to the show, if they know something more about this.

Because maybe it’s the kind of thing that’s in the parlance of soldiers.

Or in the mess hall.

Yeah, something like that.

It’s all chicken but the gravy.

It pops up in literature now and again.

It’s one of those colorful expressions that once a fiction writer finds it, they can’t leave it alone.

They throw it into all of their books.

We’re going to see it popping up a lot more now that you’ve popularized it again.

I should hope so.

But it’s really rare, and I’m glad that you made the connection to it’s all gravy because that’s the far more common thing that most people will know.

It’s all gravy, meaning it’s all good, everything’s fine, or it’s even better than you thought.

It’s all icing.

It has a cherry on top.

Oh, no, wait, that would be kind of gross with chicken and gravy.

Yeah, gravy, no.

It’s all chicken but the gravy.

I’m so glad you brought this one up, Ryan.

Well, I’m so glad you have brought it up.

It’s been on my mind, and when I heard your show, it seemed like you guys would be the ones to ask.

Yeah, sure. Thanks for calling, dude.

Maybe we’ll hear more about it from our listeners.

Take care.

Thanks for calling. Bye-bye.

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