Baby Talk Puzzle

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett. And across from me is the remarkably handsome, that Don Juan, that cast on over, that answer to a maiden’s prayer, Greg Pliska.

You know, I was kidding. I was afraid to walk in the studio for what he was going to say about me.

Well, you know, that’s actually an intro that Don Wilson used once on the Jack Benny Show for Jack Benny. So there you go.

You have a quiz, something over there? Is it fun?

You know, I actually call this week’s puzzle baby talk because, well, as you know, I have this adorable six-month-old baby at home.

In any case, the answers to this week’s quiz are all words or phrases with the word baby in them.

Oh, okay.

So I’ll give you the definition.

You give me the word or phrase.

Baby on board.

Okay, check that one out.

For example, if the definition I gave you were the group of people about 10 or 15 years older than us, you would say that’s the baby boomers person.

That’s right.

I’m glad you included me in the us.

Yeah, I was going to say 10 or 15.

The baby boomers.

The geezers.

So I tried to find some unusual or lesser known slang terms in addition to some of the more classic ones.

Oh, are they actual slang?

Oh, slang.

They’re not necessarily all slang.

I’d like to send this quiz out to Grant Barrett.

Some will be slang.

Thank you very much.

Are you ready?

Yes.

Okay.

Number one, a vacation like the one my wife and I took just before Margo was born.

A baby moon.

A baby moon.

Baby moon.

Absolutely.

It also refers to postpartum alone time.

Right.

And could be accompanied by a push present.

That’s right.

I have entries for both of those on my website.

Yeah, see?

Wait, a push present?

Is that to help in labor or what?

No, that’s the present that the husband gives the wife after she has the baby.

Because she was pushing the baby out?

That’s right.

Yeah.

There you go.

Oh, I missed that one.

If you have a cesarean, you get nothing.

All right.

Here’s another one for you.

The father of your child with whom you are not currently involved.

Like your baby daddy?

Your baby daddy.

That’s the one going on here.

The cut of pork you might have at a barbecue.

Baby back ribs.

There you go.

Yeah, absolutely.

One, two, three, two, three.

Okay.

Here is another one.

1996-97 video that was one of the first internet phenomena and which figured prominently in the Ally McBeal show.

Dancing Baby.

Oh, yeah.

Dancing Baby.

Remember that?

Oh, my gosh.

It was this 3D Dancing Baby, and she had, on the television show, she had, like, daydreams or hallucinations.

Hallucinations of this thing, which was one of the first things to circulate around the internet.

Yeah, boy, that brings back memories.

If you came to the Internet late, maybe.

Grant remembers the days of watching the coffee pot in Oxford.

There are pictures on Facebook of Grant in that day.

It’s shocking, actually.

I remember Yahoo when it was still at Stanford.

I remember Yahoo when it was just a cheer.

Speaking of computers, this is a term for the tendency of computer users to imprint on the first system they learn.

Judging.

Is that true?

Judging all others against that standard, yeah.

Really?

You got this from the jargon file.

Let me call Eric S. Raymond and find out if he can give me the answer.

I don’t know.

I know the phenomenon for sure.

Yeah, it’s like why some people prefer Windows over Mac or vice versa.

I prefer speak and spell.

What would this be called?

I like abacuses.

Baby steps, baby imprint, baby duck?

I don’t know.

Ooh, very good.

Is it baby duck?

Baby duck syndrome.

I did not know that.

Absolutely.

That was a guess.

That was a total guess.

That’s good.

I like that term though.

That’s a fun term.

That’s nice.

This will wake you up.

Sexy sleepwear consisting of a hip length top of delicate fabric with a matching panty.

Baby doll.

Baby doll, yeah.

Yeah, there you go.

I just wanted to say matching panty.

Singular.

Yeah, right.

How about one more, Greg?

One more.

You got it.

A nickname for the resulting companies if Microsoft had been broken up due to antitrust legislation.

To baby softs.

No.

To baby micros?

To baby Microsofts.

Yeah.

To baby IBMs.

Baby…

To baby DOS.

Now, think about what we called the companies when the phone company was broken up.

Those were baby bells.

Baby bells.

So if we were going to be clever, what would we call Microsoft when it was broken up?

Baby bulls?

No.

Keep changing that vowel to another one.

Baby bills?

The baby bills.

No.

Really?

Yeah.

Really?

The LA Times article about the case that Word Spy cites as one of the sources for that term, the baby bills.

Oh, that explains it.

I’m kidding.

Baby bills.

That’s very nice.

That was a hard quiz, Greg.

We’re crying like babies over here.

Yeah, that’s right.

We’re just a Waylon.

No, that was like taking candy from a baby.

Yeah.

Anyway, it was great fun.

Thank you for teaching me a whole bunch of new slang.

It’s my pleasure.

You know that makes Grant happy.

If you’d like to talk about grammar, usage, slang, dialect, old sayings, or quizzes and puzzles, give us a call at 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAYWORD.

Or send us an email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.