Catching a Crab, Not a Clam

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And it is time for a mea culpa.

Well, Grant, you will recall that a few weeks ago we had a conversation with Ian in Jacksonville, Florida. He is the musician who wondered about a particular way that he and his fellow musicians use the word clam. You recall this conversation.

Right. That’s when you have a clanger or a bad note. And it’s when you make a mistake and people call it a clam.

And you made a clam of your own.

I did. I made a clanger for sure. Because while we were talking about that, I piped up toward the end of the conversation. And I said, hey, I used to do a lot of sculling and rowing. And when we messed up a stroke, if our oar caught in the water, we called that catching a clam.

And you said, Grant, oh, I never heard that before. Oh, that’s interesting. And I said, yeah. Bad trombone.

After I said that and that program aired, we received all these mostly polite emails and phone calls from rowers all over the country, all of whom said something to the effect of, you know, I’ve been rowing for years and I’ve never used the expression catching a clam. I always called it catching a crab. And so do all the other rowers I know. But gosh, maybe catching a clam is a regional usage. I’d be interested to know.

Yeah, people were very open-minded. They were like, well, that would be amazing that other people said the other thing. And I’m interested to find out more. So most people were like, that’d be pretty cool if there was another way to say it.

Yes. And unfortunately for me, anyway, it is not a regional usage. It’s regional to Martha. Martha’s ever. It was a total goof on my part. I mean, what can I say? I was thinking, you know, a mistake that happens when you’re doing coordinated movements with other people. A small creature with a shell. It’s a four-letter word. The four-letter word starts with C. It’s a clam.

And I do want to add that I really did row for many, many years. In fact, you can do an online search for New York Times and Martha Barnette and rowing, and you’ll find a piece I wrote several years ago for the Times where I was rhapsodizing about the joys of rowing. So I do know this stuff, but what can I say? I caught a verbal crab. Even Homer nods.

Well, Martha, thank you so much for the erratum report. We appreciate it. We’re always delighted to hear your thoughts, questions, reports, stories, complaints, errors, and more. You can send them to words@waywordradio.org.

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