Carter’s Little Liver Pills

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Aaron. I’m calling from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Hi, Aaron. Welcome to the program.

Hey, Aaron.

Hello.

What’s going on?

Not much. I have a question about a phrase my dad has used for as long as I can remember.

The phrase goes, he’s got blank, fill in the blank.

He’s got more blank than Carter’s got pills.

And he’ll use that sometimes as, like, a good thing or a bad thing, like, you’ve got more excuses than Carter’s got pills, or he’s got more money than Carter has pills.

So he uses it kind of in all sorts of different ways.

And I guess I was just curious to see where that came from.

Mm—

You have any ideas?

I honestly don’t.

And my dad is the oldest of five brothers, and none of his brothers, my uncles, use that phrase.

I’ve never heard anybody else use that phrase.

And when I asked my dad about it, he’s not even really sure.

He thinks he may have gotten it from his father, my grandfather.

Interesting.

Okay, well, that’s quite possible.

And we can tell you that it comes from an old product called Carter’s Little Liver Pills.

Okay.

These were pills that were formulated back in the 1860s by one Samuel J. Carter of Erie, Pennsylvania.

Yeah, and they were massively advertised and distributed.

And it was kind of a patent medicine that was supposed to cure what ails you, whether it’s headache or constipation.

It was really, really popular.

And in fact, I can remember seeing old television ads for them.

They come in these little bottles and they’re little bitty pills.

So they were almost like a snake oil salesman type thing.

It’s interesting that you bring that up because originally they were called Carter’s Little Liver Pills.

But in the 1950s, the Federal Trade Commission went after them and made them change the name to Carter’s Little Pills.

They were so successful in the 1880s that this is really, you can just imagine billboards painted on the sides of buildings and big ads in the newspapers.

And by 1913, the expression, you have more money than Carter has pills, was pretty standard.

And then the word money started to be replaced, as Martha was saying.

Did your father ever use the version of he has more money than Carter has pills?

Yeah, he’s used that phrase before.

But yeah, he uses it, the first part there can be used interchangeably.

And like I said, sometimes it can be if he’s upset with me or one of my brothers

And says we haven’t done a good enough job for him.

And you might say, well, you’ve got more excuses than Carter’s got pills

If we, say, didn’t mow the lawn when we were supposed to.

And so he uses it.

I mean, what you might say about him is he’s got more colloquialisms than Carter has.

Very good.

Hey, Aaron, I’m going to give you some advice for a good time, okay?

Okay.

All right.

Go on YouTube and look for commercials for Carter’s Little Pills

Because they’re like, you know, they’re from the 60s,

And they’re black and white,

And there’s this really authoritative-looking guy there

Talking about keeping you regular with Carter’s Little Pills,

And he’s got all these official charts,

And he’s just totally mansplaining the whole thing about how digestion works.

It’s really funny, so I would recommend that.

Well, going on YouTube is always dangerous because you can easily do a deep dive.

That is true.

It always ends in cats, so that’s okay.

That’s true.

Also make sure I’m not at work when I do that.

All right.

Well, Aaron, we hope that helps.

Thanks, buddy.

All right.

Thank you very much, Martha and Grant.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye.

Well, we’ve got more answers than Carter has pills.

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