The term biz bag, meaning a bag to stuff your discarded items in, comes from an old commercial for Biz stain-removing detergent. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Biz Bag”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Grant and Martha.
This is Nicole Spalbett calling from sublime and sunny Portland, Oregon.
Oh, sublime and sunny.
Nice.
Nice.
Hello, Nicole.
You work for the Tourism Bureau, right?
No.
No.
My question regards is saying that my great Aunt Helen, Annie Honey, as we lovingly referred to her, she deserves that nickname in every way.
She was my nana, my grandmother’s sister, and a cryptographer in the Korean War, actually.
Okay.
The term she often used, well, she had many terms, is biz bag.
And for some context, when she was moving to a retirement home, my mom was helping her clean out her closet and asked her to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to keep things or to get rid of them.
And to keep, it was fine, but she said biz bag for anything in the discard pile.
I have no idea how to spell this, and I’m wondering if there’s actually any definition for this term or where she would have picked it up.
Bizbag, so B-I-Z-B-A-G?
That’s how I’m spelling it, but we don’t really know.
Okay.
And she’s no longer with you to ask?
She’s not, no, unfortunately.
But this is something that my mom and I still talk about, sort of the honey-isms.
So, you know, and it’s one of those things where I’m really curious because I’d like to sort of keep it alive and some of the things that, you know, my family has said.
No, I can tell you, I used to use that term all the time, put it in the biz bag.
Yes. And you know why? Because it comes from a commercial in the 1970s.
Are you serious?
Yeah, yeah. For biz stain and odor eliminator.
In fact, you can go online. You should do this, Nicole. You and your mom should go online because there are videos of some of those commercials where they talk about putting stuff in the biz bag.
You know, they’re sorting through clothing and the really, really badly stained.
So the stuff with the grass stains or blood or something goes in the biz bag.
Yeah, that goes in the biz bag. And I can remember when I was quite young, I don’t know if there was another commercial that made us do this.
But if we wanted to reject any idea or anything, my friends and I would all say, eh, Biz Bag.
And I think that might have been an imitation of another commercial, but I’ve never been able to find it, this buzzer sound.
There are probably people listening right now who are remembering this.
So Biz is a stain-removing detergent, right?
Yeah, yeah.
I think you can still buy it.
I think you can, yeah.
Wow.
Okay.
You were hoping for something more exciting, right?
That’s sort of the last thing that I would think of when I think of Annie Honey.
It’s like watching TV or remembering commercials.
It must have been really effective.
She’s a woman who loved puzzles and haiku and reading.
I don’t ever associate her with watching TV.
Well, maybe she picked it up from somebody else who watched television.
Yeah, it just has to do with sorting laundry.
Nice.
Okay.
Well, I will tell my mom that.
Okay.
And, yeah, then my dad does the laundry in the house, so he will put things in the biz bag.
There we go.
Okay.
Very good.
Very good.
Well, call us some time with some more Annie Honey-isms.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
Bye.
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