Celebrate National Grammar Day

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Did you know that January 20th is National Cheese Day?

Or how about the fact that September 8th is National Iguana Awareness Day?

I wonder who decides this stuff anyway.

I don’t know.

Maybe we’ll find out on National Committee Day.

Well, the reason I bring this up, Grant, is that it turns out that grammar has its own day as well.

National Grammar Day is March 4th, at least according to the Society for the Preservation of Good Grammar, or SPOG for short.

That’s an organization whose philosophy is, according to its website, “There are huge problems in this world, and then there are problems that can be solved by everyday people with red pens and a little moxie.”

So here’s the National Grammar Day.

I have to say one thing, though.

All the copy editors I’ve ever known used blue pencil and not a red pen.

Good point.

Good point.

And you know, did you see what John McIntyre had to write on the blog that he keeps for the Baltimore Sun?

He’s the copy editor there.

Yes.

He put it exactly like I would put it.

He said, “I feel a tremor of apprehension at how the various mavens, snobs, snoots, elitists, prescriptionists, and precisionists, drunk with power at getting a day all their own, might comport themselves.”

You and I, though, Martha, we’re going to be here, right?

Oh, yes.

We’re going to stick to our New Year’s resolutions.

Do you remember what those are, right?

We’re going to keep our blue pencils to ourselves?

We resolve to hold our writing and speaking to a high standard while forgiving and forgetting the mistakes in the language of others.

I think you made that resolution.

I don’t remember doing that.

I did.

Well, you’re bound to, and I put it out into your name.

So here’s the other one that you’re upholding and you didn’t know.

We resolve to accept that we will make mistakes also, and we resolve to learn from them and to learn to live with them.

All right.

Well, anyway, if you’re curious about National Grammar Day, you can find out more about it at our website.

That’s waywordradio.org.

And in the meantime, if you have a grammatical pet peeve or you’re curious about the origin of a word or a slang phrase, march forth to your phone and call us.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

You can also email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Karen from Katy, Texas.

What’s on your mind, Karen?

Well, my 12-year-old son had a question that I thought, this is right up your guy’s alley.

He asked me where the name Booby Trap originated.

Oh boy.

Let me ask you, did your son have any theories about that?

Well, no, but I told him it was named after the inventor Edward Booby, and he didn’t go for that.

Did you see that in Wikipedia or something?

No, I just made it up.

Does he have any other guesses?

Well, we did look up online what we could find out, and we found also the term Booby Prize and that a booby trap or a booby prize goes to someone who is a fool or is an idiot.

But that’s about as far as it could go.

He asked why an idiot or a fool was called a boob or a booby, and I said, I don’t know, but maybe we could find out.

So you’re calling the boobs.

That’s right.

No, no, no, not at all.

Just to clarify, a booby trap is something, I guess where you kind of set a trick for somebody that they’re not expecting.

A paint is going to fall on them when they open a door or there’s going to be a hidden rope on the ground that’s going to yank them up into the trees when they step into the rope, that sort of thing, right?

Yeah.

So you’re on the right track there.

I mean, as far as I know, the idea of a booby trap is something that makes a boob out of you.

Yep, exactly right.

And he just wanted to know why.

I mean, obviously, that word now has a completely different connotation.

But how did someone looking ridiculous was called a boob?

Well, it may come from the Spanish word “bobo,” which means fool.

It’s definitely tied to the kind of, I don’t know if it comes from that, but there’s some reinforcement there from the goofy seabird called the booby.

I don’t know if you’ve seen these on the Discovery Channel or any of these.

The blue-footed ones.

They’re wobbly kind of weird-looking birds that just, you wonder how they stand up at all.

Okay.

Yeah, kind of goofy-looking.

Interesting.

Yeah, so the idea is the idea of goofiness.

And booby trap is kind of a weird word because you first see it in the mid-19th century, the idea of schoolboys playing tricks on each other.

But it’s also come to mean something much more vicious.

I mean, to booby trap a house or something in a war situation.

Right.

I have to say that the elephant in the room here, the giant boob in the room here, I guess, is the connection between boobs and breasts, right?

Right.

Right.

And we can just dismiss that because it has nothing to do with the idea of a booby trap.

Right.

And I think that’s where his 12-year-old mentality was going, and I’m glad to know that’s not how it started.

Yeah, that kind of boob is from an entirely different family of words, probably from an old Germanic term that simply means breast.

So sometimes in English, we have words that look exactly the same, sound exactly the same, but come from entirely different roots.

And in this case, those boobies that he’s probably thinking about a lot are not the same as in the booby trap.

Okay.

Well, Karen, I hope we’ve provided a little bit of clarity.

That was fun.

Thank you for sharing that with us.

Okay.

Thank you for your call.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve got a question about words for parts of the body or different ways to entrap your co-host, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

You must, you must, you must give us a call.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Rick Morris from Stoughton, Wisconsin.

What’s up?

Well, you know, I’ve wondered for a long time about the origin of Turkey Manhattan.

Turkey Manhattan.

Manhattan is in the island.

Okay.

And when I was a kid in Central Indiana, it’s pretty common that we would have Turkey Manhattan or roast beef Manhattan for lunch in elementary school.

And when I, I mentioned it to someone up here and they just thought I was really goofy.

So I’m picturing a lunchroom in the middle of Indiana, redolent with all kinds of smells, and you’re going through the line and you’re asking for Turkey Manhattan, what in the heck are you asking for?

Well, it’s pretty simple.

It’s just a slice of bread.

And on top of that is a slice of turkey or, or roast beef.

On top of that, a scoop of mashed potatoes and on top of that gravy.

It’s not really too big a deal.

But when you mention it to, I work with another fellow from Indiana and anytime we have the sixins up here in our lunchroom, you know, we get sort of misty eyed and like talking about Turkey Manhattan.

I’ve never heard of it.

I don’t, I don’t know why.

We had all kinds of chef surprises when I was growing up in Missouri, but I don’t remember the Turkey Manhattan.

It’s just something that really has puzzled me for 20 years.

Wow.

So many people are, you know, like, I don’t know, 20 mile radius of Indianapolis just know about this, but no one else.

Is that the only version of it, Rich, is just the turkey one or can you do that with other kind of meats?

No, it’s usually either turkey or roast beef.

The best one I ever had was a bar on the west side of Indianapolis where the day after prime rib night, they would use leftover prime rib.

Oh my goodness.

And there was an upscale version of what we had in elementary school, but the same idea.

Turkey Manhattan and beef Manhattan.

I think that this is probably one of those food name mysteries that we can’t solve completely.

Although I’ve seen theories that it may have to do with the fact that it’s kind of stacked the way a skyscraper would be in Manhattan, although it’s not very tall.

Well, I just figured that maybe it was put on a state issued school lunch menu back in the sixties, sort of like they did with ketchup as a vegetable that it just took off.

Yeah.

Well, you talked about prime rib night and how you use the leftovers to make beef Manhattan, right?

Yeah.

I’m thinking that maybe it has to do with the fact that you’re kind of dressing up something that’s not so fancy and giving it a fancy name, you know, what those New Yorkers eat.

My colleague, Barry Poppock, he specializes in food words, among other things, and he’s basically confirming what you’re saying here, Rich.

This term is all about Indiana.

I’m imagining, Martha, that there’s a clever cafeteria lady back there who said, “The only way we’re going to sell this to the kids is to give it a really good name.”

And she just decided to call it something, you know, put Manhattan in there.

It’s classy.

It’s stylish.

That’s the way.

Yeah.

You know, we grew up in the country and we have no idea what those people ate.

Well, Rich, what we’re going to do is Martha is going to hit the siren here and I’m going to turn on the flashing lights and we’re going to put the call out to everyone in Indianapolis and Indiana and they can email us and let us know what they know about this.

We want to hear about your school lunches and how far back you can remember this.

No, seriously.

Are we sure we want to do this?

I want to know how far back we can trace this term just from our audience.

Somebody may have eaten this in the 1940s and they can tell us that and that’d be really interesting to know that we can take it back that far, wouldn’t it?

Oh, my gosh.

And then we can talk about chicken and noodles.

Did you have that?

Oh, yeah.

Chicken and noodles, chicken and dumplings.

Chicken and everything.

All right.

Well, Rich, thank you so much for the food call.

We are always a fan of food calls.

This was a good one.

Thanks for your help.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Okay.

Bye.

Well, share your food memories with us.

The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hi.

This is Chris calling from San Diego.

Hiya, Chris.

How are you, Martha?

Doing just fine.

And yourself?

Just fine.

Beautiful day.

Beautiful day.

Right.

Right.

How did you get into the boat?

Oh, well, I was using an expression.

I just wondered if you could tell me where it came from.

Oh, let’s hear it.

Be happy to try.

I was helping a friend change tack rooms.

That’s a little building you keep horse equipment in, and I had left some nails and saddle rack and bridle racks, and she said, “Do you want those?”

I said, “Nope.

It’s all yours.

Lock, stock, and barrel.”

So I just wondered where that came from because I’ve used it all my life, and I don’t even know why.

Well, Chris, tell us.

Do you have a theory about it?

Do you think barrels have to do with rolling out the barrel?

No, because of the horses, I think it’s more of a cowboy thing.

I think it might have something to do with guns.

Right.

It is actually from guns.

It has to do with the lock, the stock, and the barrel of guns.

These are each part of weapons.

That’s right.

I was wondering.

Yeah.

And you find this term first pop up about 1817, the earliest use that we know of was from Sir Walter Scott, and he’s talking about it, and he’s using it in a metaphorical sense to simply mean everything, all of an occasion, all of whatever you’re talking about.

And it’s interesting that you’re a horse person because it’s always reminded me of the language of people who are really interested in guns, like gun fanatics.

I’m not talking about freaks and wearers.

I’m just talking about people who appreciate the fine craftsmanship of a well-made weapon, and they consider them art as much as a tool.

They always remind me of horsey people in the way that they talk passionately about what they do, and they have their own in-house language, and some of the language of horse people has made it into regular English, and some of the language of gun people, I believe, like this term, has made it into regular English.

It’s kind of like generated because of the passion they have for their pastime.

Nice.

Chris, is that an expression that you’ve heard all your life?

Yes.

Yeah, I’ve just always said it.

It’s always been around the stables with the horses, and the older people used it, and of course when you’re 16, anybody who’s four days older.

Right.

It was loads of fun.

Always picked it up, and always when I’m around horses, that’s what I’ll say.

Well, hey, thanks a lot for calling.

Oh, you’re welcome.

Thanks for the information.

Okay.

Bye-bye, Chris.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve got a question about guns, germs, or steel, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

You can also send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

So fire away.

Coming up on A Way with Words, something puzzling this way comes.

Stick around for a word puzzle and more of your calls.

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And joining us once again is our quiz guy, John Choneski.

John, come on down.

Hello, Grant.

Hello, Martha.

How are you guys?

You guys look great today, by the way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cheese ball.

What do you want, money?

Why not?

Who doesn’t?

Well, what do you have on the paper there?

You got something?

Can I see those?

Are those the questions?

No.

No.

Get away.

Get away.

No, you can’t see those, Grant.

My gosh.

Luckily, the font is very, very small.

Yeah, Grant’s good at reading.

Actually, it’s written in backwards and in Chinese, and it’s like red on red text.

That’s right.

Send it back in time, and it comes back to me.

Our weather recently has inspired me to create a quiz about snow clones.

Now, you guys know what snow clones are, right?

They’re delicious.

Yes.

We’ve talked about them before, right?

Yummy.

Right.

You might say, “Greg Pliska is a great quiz master,” but you know, these days, Choneski is the new Pliska.

I know people say that all the time, but yes, beige is the new black or whatever.

That’s a snow clone.

It’s a template for a phrase based on an earlier well-known phrase.

Well, I’m going to give you a sentence with a snow clone in it, and I’d like you to tell me the original word or words that have been replaced in the snow clone, and if you can, the source, just for fun, okay?

For example, if I said, “As a reviewer, I get lots and lots of free books.

Frankly, my shelves runneth over,” you would say …

I would say, “Buy another bookshelf.”

No.

No.

“My shelves runneth over.”

Right.

It’s like, “My cup runneth over,” right?

Cup.

Cup.

Right.

The word “shelves” replaces “cup,” as in, “My cup runneth over,” which is from …

Is it the King James Bible?

Is that a biblical reference?

Exactly.

Yes, King James Bible, Psalm 23, verse 5, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.”

Be prepared.

There could be several words in the snow clone whose originals I’ll need, okay?

Oh.

Here we go.

You know, Bob and Tom were pretty beat up.

I offered to get some bandages for them, but Tom snarled, “Bandages?

You don’t need no stinking bandages.”

Oh, sure.

The treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Right.

Badges.

Badges is right.

All right.

What else is there?

All right.

Here’s another one.

“Sometimes you seem almost proud to be a complainer.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear you say, ‘I am Josh.

Hear me whine.'”

Oh, so this “I am woman.

Hear me roar.”

Nice.

Right.

Yes.

Who said it, Martha?

Helen Reddy, of course.

There we go.

Martha?

I am running up to kick that.

I am woman.

My favorite lines from that song is, “I’m just an embryo with a long, long way to go.”

Yeah.

What?

Who decided that would be a great…who penned that?

I remember that.

Yeah.

“I’m still an embryo with a long, long way to go.”

Okay.

All right.

Here’s the next one.

“I stopped off at Grant’s house to show him my new Webster’s Dictionary, but he takes out his Oxford English Dictionary and says, ‘That’s not a dictionary. That’s a dictionary.'”

That’s not a knife.

This is a knife.

Very good.

From…

Crocodile Dundee.

Right.

Starring Paul Hogan.

Right.

Playing the Australian, the fish out of water in New York City, right?

Strong.

Yeah.

1986.

Nice.

Very good.

Nice.

This next one is an actual line I heard on one of my kids’ television shows.

“On the episode of Lazy Town, entitled Happy Brush Day, the character of Ziggy, who loves sweets, says, ‘I love the taste of taffy in the morning. It tastes like taffy.'”

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Oh, yeah.

It’s from Apocalypse Now, right?

It smells like…

It smells like victory.

Taffy.

Right.

The words I’m looking for are smell, napalm, and victory.

The original phrase is, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory.”

It’s a great little scene there, and it’s just a man who’s at the peak of his personal power and feels like he can do anything.

Right.

Right?

He feels in charge of great forces.

Which I’m sure is how Ziggy felt about taffy.

He felt really in charge of taffy, and he could finally…

Okay.

Next.

“When I cleaned out my dorm room, Anthony took my old garbage can for his room, stating, ‘Well, a waste basket is a terrible thing to waste.'”

Oh, no.

That’s horrible.

Horrible.

Thank you.

It’s the slogan of the United Negro College Fund, actually, which has just decided to stop using the full name and go strictly to the initialism.

UNCF.

UNCF, yes.

And the word that is replacing that?

A mind.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, which is really still a great slogan, I think.

Sure.

It is fantastic.

Anyway, Jon, thank you so much for a fun time.

Thank you, guys.

I’ll see you soon.

Well, if you’ve got a question about slang, regional expressions, pronunciations, word origins, or anything else, give us a call, 1-877-9299673.

Or send us an email, the address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant.

This is Lisa from Indianapolis.

Hiya, Lisa.

How are you?

Hello, Lisa.

What’s going on?

I’m doing well.

I’ve got a proposal for you.

I’d like to invite you to invent a word to help me out with something.

Oh, great.

We love this.

Oh, okay.

It’s a very strange feeling that I’ve had, and maybe you can relate to it.

I have a couple of examples.

So I’m online fairly often, and when I’m offline using a pen and a piece of paper, like if I’m writing my grocery list, maybe I come to the word broccoli, which I never remember if it has two Cs or two Ls or whatever, I write the word and I have this feeling that auto spell check is going to underline it in red, and then I can find out what the actual spelling is.

Of course, I’m in a paper and pen world, but I’m thinking like I’m online, and another example is when I’m reading the newspaper and I have this feeling that I just look to the end of the article, I’ll come to a link that I should be able to click on.

For more information?

Right, right.

I don’t know if you’ve had that feeling, but I’ve talked to some others and they could relate, and I thought we need a word to describe this.

I have the Undo built in on a Mac, which I’ve been using for 20 years, although I do use Windows as well.

It’s Apple Z, and it’s so ingrained to me, I just find my left hand just doing that Apple Z even when I’m not in front of a computer.

You mean for your life?

Like if you do something?

Well, yeah, if you accidentally turn the page in a book or a newspaper or it flips on its own and you want to go back, you just do Apple Z and you’re like, “Oh, I can’t do that.

That doesn’t work.

I can’t work it off.”

Where are the shortcuts?

Right.

Exactly.

Where are the shortcuts?

I’ve seen this discussed online as well, and it’s almost always with stuff that’s done for us that we’re capable of doing on our own, it’s just we’ve become used to these seasons.

We’re spoiled.

Yeah, these shortcuts, right?

We are.

We’re spoiled.

Yeah.

I mean, when I go into my office, which is usually a mess, I want to hit the search function button if I’m looking for something.

Actually, I would like to reboot my office and start over because it looks like a paper bomb went off in there.

I mean, wouldn’t it be great if you could Apple Z your life?

I do know of one word for this, but it’s only very specific to what I was talking about, which is real life undo.

People talk about this as the thing that they kind of want, and you often see people talk about making some — one of the mistakes that you regret, it’s not something that nearly kills you, but turning down a job that maybe you should have accepted and you realize it like a couple weeks later or being mean to somebody who didn’t really deserve it because you were in a bad mood, and you say, “I wish I had a real life undo so I could go back and redo that situation in the way that it should have been done.”

I like that.

That’s nice.

That’s really good.

Well, Lisa, do you have any candidates for — have you and your friends puzzled this one out?

I only have a research paper title for it.

-oh.

Yeah.

It’s called — how about this, “Electro-Technological Tendencies Within Pulp and Ink Habitats,” but it’s far too limiting.

I mean, you guys kind of took it into all different dimensions, which I really like, so I can’t make a nice acronym from that one.

I think it’s even further than that.

I mean, I think this is related to the muscle memory that athletes have when, for example, they practice a tennis swing 100,000 times over their life or pitching a baseball, and they’d get really good at it because they’re doing one thing over and over.

And that’s how they can just drop into a zone when they’re in the middle of a game and not think about it.

And this is kind of what we’re talking about because all of these behaviors the three of us have described happen because we’re not really thinking about it.

They just come impulsively.

Well, Lisa, we’re going to put the call out, and we’re going to see what everyone else has to say.

Maybe they’ve got some words for us.

I know that every time we put a call out for a word for an idea, they just come pouring in.

And this sounds like the kind of thing that everybody has experienced.

Great.

Great.

Well, I like that we’re starting the conversation.

All right.

Thank you for your call, Lisa.

Sure.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

But if you’ve got a term for the kind of behaviors that you do when you try to do something offline that can only be done online, we would love to hear it.

Give us your ideas.

The email address is words@waywordradio.org.

The phone number is 1-877-929-9673, and the discussion form is at waywordradio.org/discussion.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Chris calling from Okinawa, Japan.

From Okinawa, Japan?

Hello.

Hi.

Welcome, Chris.

Thanks.

Hey, I’m calling with a question about what to call President Clinton if Senator Clinton is elected president.

Which Clinton are we talking about here?

Both.

Both.

So if Hillary is elected president- Former President Clinton if the senator is elected.

So if Hillary is elected president, what do we call Bill?

Correct.

Well, November is a long way off.

I think there’s a chance we’ll just be calling him President Clinton.

Former President Clinton.

There is.

But you’re saying it’s going to be weird to go to a state event and have them announced upon entrance as the President and the President Clinton.

The President’s Clinton?

Well, Chris, we- That’s exactly what I’m wondering.

Yeah.

Because we call former presidents- Do you say President’s Clinton?

Do you say Mr. and Mrs. President Clinton?

The Clintons?

The Clintons?

That would be good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I’ve already seen people kind of mocking the fact that he would be, if she was elected, the first gentleman.

And of course, that causes all sorts of snickering given his sordid history in the White House.

But a lot of governors’ husbands are called the first gentleman.

Aren’t they?

At the state level, yeah.

Chris, what do you think?

Well, you know, I’ve heard the first gentleman thing as well, of course, and that makes sense.

But it just doesn’t sound right to me.

And I think in the case of President Bill Clinton, there’s kind of something unique there in that he’s been president, so we can just go on calling him President Clinton.

So why not just stick with that and leave the first gentleman title to some other guy who hasn’t been president and his wife is elected?

So you wouldn’t go with First Laddie, then?

He was suggesting First Laddie.

I saw that, and funny, but yeah, no, it probably won’t stick.

I think there’s another way out of this, though, Chris.

If you remember from your history studies, there was much discussion when Washington was elected, what to call him, people proposed king and this and that, and he chose president.

He chose a title that was a little more suited to somebody who was running a company than somebody who was running a government, you know, didn’t go for any of the traditional European names.

And I think that Bill Clinton actually has put in a position here where he can say what he prefers to be called.

And I think if he was a gentleman and he wanted to simplify things for everyone, including all of America and the press, he would say, “Just call me Mr. Clinton.”

The president and Mr. Clinton is how you would say they’re entering the…

Yes.

I think that would totally work.

And I think that he could do that because he’s the one who can decide that the honorific isn’t necessary.

Absolutely.

That makes a lot of sense, and that’s probably why it never occurred to me.

Well, Chris, thank you so much for your…

Domio Arigato, and thank you so much for your call from Japan.

Hey, no problem.

Thanks a lot.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye now.

You know, Grant, I consulted Miss Manners on this a while back when this possibility first came up.

And I liked what she said about the title First Lady.

She mentioned the fact that Jacqueline Kennedy didn’t like the title First Lady at all.

You know why?

Why?

She said, “It makes me sound like a saddle horse.”

First Lady.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Well, if you got a question about politics, a question about language, and a question about where they meet in the middle, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

The email address, as always, is words@waywordradio.org.

You can always stop by our discussion forum to weigh in on this question.

The address is waywordradio.org/discussion.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi.

Who’s this?

This is Anne.

Hello, Anne.

Where are you calling from?

Hello, Anne.

I’m calling from San Diego.

What’s going on, Anne?

Well, I was having a conversation recently with someone who reminded me of an expression that my parents and their generation used to use frequently, which was, “I don’t want to be a piker, but,” in reference to not wanting to be considered a cheapskate, but at the same time not being willing to spend a lot of money on something.

And I was wondering if you could tell me the origin of that particular phrase.

Yes.

Yes, we can.

As a matter of fact, do you gamble at all, Anne?

Oh, that’s a loaded question.

Will we see you out at the casino?

You might, but I promise not to recognize you.

Okay.

Well, I wear dark glasses and a wig, so you wouldn’t anyway.

Okay.

But Anne, what were the circumstances under which people were calling you a piker?

Or were you calling other people pikers?

In reference to spending money, not gambling, but making purchases, particularly.

So you go out with friends to a restaurant and a check comes to the table and somebody says?

Let’s split it four ways, and all you’ve had is a Diet Coke and the free crackers.

And a little parsley from somebody’s plate.

And you’re the piker then, right?

Then you’re the piker.

Now, is it a fighting word where you come from?

Is it a fighting word where you come from?

Is it the kind of thing that can make somebody really angry, or is it just kind of a friendly little chat?

Oh, no.

No, no.

Just said conversationally.

Okay.

Mm—

Well, the piker that you’re talking about, and I say it that way, the piker, because there are three different pikers, as a matter of fact, but the one that you’re talking about does indeed come from gambling.

It comes from the early to mid-1800s and specifically originally referred to people who were kind of parsimonious at the gambling table, people who would make small wagers and like penny ante bets, just like really small time players, not the kind of guys who would — or gals who would just throw a big bundle of cash around or like, you know.

Another piker is a vagrant or a hobo.

Do you know that word?

No.

Never heard that one.

Yeah.

There’s a little bit of merging of them, because they’re kind of all the meanings a piker have done a little reinforcing to mean just to someone who’s kind of just generally disagreeable and not a good person to be around, someone who’s not reliable, shifty, and just untrustworthy in general.

I guess I am a piker, then.

Are you shifty?

Well, no, no, no.

An unreliable.

No, wait.

When he places quarter bets at the blackjack table.

No, wait, and I was going back to the gambling idea.

I’m thinking that I’m a very timid gambler.

In Spanish, you call that being tight from the elbow.

Tight from the elbow.

Yeah.

I like that.

All right.

Well, thanks for an interesting question.

Okay.

Thank you.

Nice talking with you.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you have a question about language, take a chance on us.

Give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Well, a few weeks ago here, we talked about the word “pediddle.”

It’s a game you play on road trips when you see a car with only one working headlight.

Right.

If you’re the first to spot a car with only one working headlight, you shout “pediddle.”

Then you get to do something to your fellow passenger, usually something like steal a kiss if it’s your sweetie, or if your fellow passenger is a buddy or a pal, then you get to punch them.

Right.

And during that conversation, I confessed that I had never played pediddle in my entire life.

I also asked half-jokingly if there’s a tail light version of pediddle.

And boy, did you folks let us know.

We received…

-huh.

-huh.

Didn’t they, Grant?

We did.

We did.

We received a whole truckload of emails about the name of this game where you play pediddle with a tail light out.

People told us it was variously known as peduncle, peduncle, perduncle, pasquaddle, peducci, or popeye.

Popeye.

Popeye.

And then there was the email from Larry, who informed us when he was growing up in Philadelphia, he learned this game as “dinkle pink.”

No he didn’t.

Was he making that up?

Maybe he was having a zon.

I don’t know.

I don’t know.

It’s a funny one anyway.

I wouldn’t be surprised.

Variety in languages is rewarding and interesting.

I’m going to start playing “dinkle pink.”

You know, the tail light version has a problem.

You could just follow one car that had one busted tail light, and you could keep hitting the guy next to you over and over again.

And saying, “Dinkle pink, dinkle pink, dinkle pink, dinkle pink.”

Right.

Exactly.

“Dinkle pink, dinkle pink.”

Well, if you’ve got more words for this, Martha and I are dying to hear them.

The number is 1-877-9299673.

And you can send us email to words@waywordradio.org.

Join the rest of our listeners at our discussion forum at waywordradio.org/discussion.

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You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And it’s time for “Slang This,” the puzzle where you guess the meaning of some strange slang terms.

Today’s contestant is Carolyn Baum from Collierville, Tennessee.

Carolyn, welcome.

Hi.

I’m glad to be here.

We’re delighted to have you.

Say hi to Grant.

Hi, Grant.

Hello, Carolyn.

Where is Collierville?

It’s near Memphis.

Near Memphis.

All right.

So are you a big Blues fan?

I’m a big Southern fan of just about anything from the South.

Oh, great.

Well, Carolyn, do you have a favorite slang term, Southern or otherwise?

Actually, I do.

It’s one my husband makes fun of, it’s called “nabs.”

Have you ever heard of it?

Nabs?

No.

I don’t think I know that one.

N-A-B-S.

N is in Nabisco?

Mm—

That’s exactly, actually.

I think that’s where it came from.

It’s those little snack packets of about six crackers, the bright orange ones with peanut butter inside.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right.

And my husband thought it was really funny, one of the first road trips we went on many years ago.

And I said, “I’m going to run inside and get a Coke and some nabs,” and he wanted to know what the heck nabs were.

I don’t know that one, Carolyn.

I don’t know that one, Carolyn.

That’s brand new to me.

And it’s not a brand name, right?

That’s just something as well.

I think it is.

It’s a nickname for …

What I had always heard was that it was a shortening of, sort of a nickname for Nabisco, because they used to make a brand of the crackers.

I don’t know if that’s true.

Okay.

Well, Carolyn, that’s great.

Let’s move on to our game.

Okay.

Grant will give you a slang term, and then he’s going to give you three sentences that suggest what that term might mean.

Okay.

Now, one of those will be real, and the other two are fake.

So Carolyn, your task will be to figure out which one of those three sentences illustrates how this particular slang term is actually used.

Okay.

Now, chances are that you will not have heard the word before, so the trick will be to puzzle out its meaning.

Okay.

All right?

And I’ll be here to help you if you get stuck.

Good.

All right.

All right.

Here we go.

Carolyn, we’ve got two words today, and the first expression is “happy sack.”

It’s two words, H-A-P-P-Y-S-A-C-K, happy sack.

And the first clue, “hacky sack” used to be the game of choice for the dippy dopey set on college campuses.

Now it’s “happy sack,” which is like a sack race, only you walk on your hands with your head in a bag.

The second clue, “The captain has asked me to remind all passengers that in the event of personal digestive turbulence, you are invited to use one of our complimentary happy sacks located in the seat pocket in front of you.”

Okay.

And the third clue, “At Christmas, we play happy sack.

Everybody chips in 20 bucks.

We convert it to one $100 bill and two $50 bills and a bunch of Washingtons.

All the money goes in a bag, and then everybody takes turns drawing out bills until the 50s and the 100 come out.

The rest gets divided equally.

It saves having to deal with a wallet full of gift cards for stores you never visit.”

There are your three clues, Carolyn.

Is a happy sack a game where you walk on your hands with a bag on your head?

Is it an air sickness bag, or is it a Christmas gift-giving game?

Well, I think the middle one is an unhappy sack, and I didn’t even see me walking on my hands.

I don’t know about that.

I’ll go with the third one.

I’m guessing, though.

You’re guessing that it’s something like Rob Your Neighbor or Pirate Christmas, like one of those games, right?

I think that would definitely be happy, especially if you got the 50.

That’s right, yeah.

What if you just got a handful of ones, though?

Well, it’s better than the unhappy sack.

That’s right.

I’m with her on that.

I mean, I would have guessed that a happy sack was a town in New Jersey, but…

No, unfortunately, it’s B.

A happy sack is an air sickness bag.

Oh!

No, these airlines, they’re just full of terms where things don’t sound like they’re supposed to, you know, jargon.

Well, they don’t tell the customers that, do they?

I mean, this is, or the past news, this is in-house, huh?

No, no, this is an in-house thing.

Yeah, yeah.

That’s not something they share.

Okay, there we go.

Here’s your second word.

Actually, this is also two words.

Your second expression is “goat’s mouth,” G-O-A-T-apostrophe-S-M-O-U-T-H, goat’s mouth.

And the first clue, “When Rebecca’s illicit lover died in a suspicious fire, everyone in Kingston said of her jealous husband, “I’m a goat mouth,” or he has a goat’s mouth.

In other words, he had a way of putting doom on somebody.”

The second one, “When O’Malley testified against his fellow officers, he found the words ‘goat’s mouth’ spray-painted across his car.

It meant that they knew that he’d broken the blue wall of silence.”

And then the third clue, “The goat’s mouth formation happens a few weeks each year when cold air rushes down from Nunavut and meets moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.

Weather across the Midwest goes crazy.”

So there are your three clues, Carolyn.

Is goat’s mouth the ability to put a curse on someone?

Is it a name for a narc, squealer, or traitor?

Or is it a weird Midwestern weather formation?

Boy, I am clueless.

Martha, what are your thoughts?

I was kind of guessing maybe the first one just because you think devil and goats and all that kind of tied up together.

-huh, -huh, and bad mouth, too, I think, coming from an old African tradition, if I’m not mistaken.

But, you know, I did like Grant’s meteorologist voice.

What do you think?

It was pretty spiffy.

Oh, was it?

I can do better than that.

But, you know what, Carolyn, I would go with your first instinct.

I think that’s always best.

Well, going on a guess, I would say the first one.

Yes, yes.

Indeed, it is the first one.

You know, it’s a Jamaican expression, although I think it’s used in Barbados as well.

And that’s why I did that little bit of my really bad imitation of a Jamaican Creole.

Geneva Smitherman has written about this expression as well as G. Llewellyn Watson.

And in his book, Jamaican Sayings, he says, “A person is said to have goat’s mouth when he or she wishes another person evil, and the wishes are fulfilled.

It also applies to one who has the foresight to discern impending danger and forewarn those concerned.”

Wow.

It was just a really nice, colorful expression, which is why I chose it.

It is great.

Wow.

Thank you so much, Carolyn.

You’re a superstar.

I enjoyed it.

Yeah, that was not bad.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

I apologize.

All right.

Thank you for letting me play.

Well, Carolyn, thank you so much.

And hey, for playing our game today, we’re going to send you a book.

It’s Erin McKean’s wonderful book, Weird and Wonderful Words.

You’re going to love it.

Great.

I love it.

All right.

Thank you.

We’ll talk to you later.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve got a question about animal husbandry, give Martha a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

If you’ve got a question about language, then send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

And don’t forget about our discussion forums where you can leave your comments about anything you hear on the show or any questions you have for us and everyone else.

It’s at waywordradio.org/discussion.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Who is this?

This is Matt from New Holstein, Wisconsin.

New Holstein, Wisconsin.

Where is that?

It’s kind of in the northeast side of the state between Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan.

Matt, what is on your mind?

On my mind is something that I’ve probably noticed in the last decade or so, is that people have stopped using “pleaded,” and they almost universally use “pleaded” now.

For whenever they’re talking about, you know, court summaries and stuff like that, it’s always “pleaded,” where I know people used to say “plead.”

Like “pleaded guilty.”

Yes.

Martha?

Yeah.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

You’re thinking, Matt, the really weird thing is that “pleaded” is the traditional form.

That is weird.

Isn’t that weird?

But more and more, people are using “plead,” so I can’t really come down hard and say don’t ever use “plead,” although a lot of authorities will tell you that.

The Chicago Manual of Style says avoid “plead.”

Even the very conservative sources like Brian Garner and his Modern American Usage say that “pleaded” is perfectly fine.

Brian Garner is also the editor of Black’s Law Dictionary.

So he’s not only a lawyer, but he’s the guy who edited the book about legal terms.

Although, Martha, “plead” is a little more common outside of a law, right?

I hear “plead” more and more, actually.

So that’s funny that you’re hearing— That’s just the opposite experience.

Yeah.

I feel like growing up, I heard “plead” all the time, and now I hear nothing but “pleaded,” and so I thought maybe the Chicago style guy to come out with a new edition where they had said “pleaded” is the more preferred pronunciation, but if it’s always been that way, then maybe I just grew up in the backwoods of Indiana, which I did.

And I can understand why you would feel that way, because it seems like a word that would be formed by analogy, like “read” and “read” and “feed” and “fed.”

So you think “plead” and “blead.”

“Bleed” and “blead.”

Yeah, “bleed” and “blead.”

But the traditional form is “pleaded.”

More and more, you’re hearing “plead,” and I’m not much of a stickler about that.

How about you, Grant?

In this case, “pleaded” is fine, and “plead” is fine, but if you’re in a courtroom, you should use “pleaded.”

Okay.

Well, hopefully I will never be in that situation.

Exactly, Matt.

Yes.

Just stay out of court.

Stay out of trouble.

Behave yourself up there in New Holstein.

I will.

All right.

Well, thanks for calling.

Thank you, sir, for your call.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Call us here at 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hello.

This is Ivy Long from Indianapolis, Indiana.

What’s on your mind, Ivy?

Oh, I was calling about the phrase of the life of Riley.

I have heard it pretty much all my life in various forms, and they talk about somebody who has a nice life, who has no cares in the world, that kind of thing.

And I live on the street here in Indianapolis where the poet James Whitcomb Riley lives, and he used to sit out on the front porch and tell stories to the children of the neighborhood back years ago, and I wondered if it had anything to do with him or where it really came from.

So the life of Riley, does it have anything to do with James Whitcomb?

It doesn’t.

It doesn’t really, although it could have, but as far as we know that it doesn’t.

There was a song written in 1882 or 1883 by an Irish-American performer by the name of Pat Rooney, and it’s about an Irishman talking about what he’s going to do when he hits it big, when he makes it rich.

He’s a hotel owner.

And there’s a verse in there.

You can find this online, but I’ll read it to you here.

There’s a verse in there that I think exactly encapsulates the idea that the phrase “the life of Riley” still has.

He goes, “I’ll defend working men’s cause, manufacture the laws, New York would be swimming in wine, a hundred a day will be very small pay, when the White House and Capitol are mine.”

So it’s a man who’s thinking of very grand ideas.

And then what happened in 1915, the song was rewritten.

This was something that used to happen with music all the time.

New words were written for patriotic words for the war effort, and it became a big hit then too.

In 1983, it was enormous enough as a hit.

In 1915, it was an even bigger hit.

But you really first see it show up in the written record in 1911, where it appears a few times in some newspapers.

So I mean, it’s hard to imagine that there was such a hit that was so massive that everyone knew it, but this was one of those songs.

You could find it on piano rolls, they were playing it in the vaudeville halls, they were playing in any place that people were gathering around a bunch of musicians.

It was just a big tune.

So if anybody heard that, they would know the reference.

Yes, they would know the reference.

And then the song being rewritten and reissued under a slightly different name, it was called I believe Are You The O’Reilly in 1915, reinforced the memory of people who heard it the first time around.

Most people these days probably remember it from the radio show in the 1940s and 1950s starring William Bendix, called The Life of Riley.

That’s how I first heard it when I was a kid, and I’m not that old, but I heard it on replays on the AM radio at night.

I would listen to WBBM out of Chicago, which I could hear in Missouri, and they would play these old-time radio shows, and there he’d be with his family living the life of Riley.

I have to say, I just found the show and I just absolutely love it, and I like the fact that every time I turn on NPR, I learn something new.

Awesome.

I am with you.

You are one of us, Ivy.

Thank you so much for your call, Ivy.

Thank you very much.

Okay, bye-bye.

All right, best wishes.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We’ve got the origin of a phrase, so if you’ve got something that you want to tell us about language, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, and you can send us email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hey, Grant, you remember our conversation a while back about Bismarck’s?

Mm, Bismarck’s.

Yes, indeed.

A caller said he grew up in Illinois, and he referred to a kind of jelly donuts as Bismarck’s, right?

Right.

And then he said, and this was the cool part, he said, “We went to California.”

They didn’t know what he was talking about.

Exactly.

And this discussion brought back a lot of sweet memories for our listeners, but it also confirmed the fact that one food name can mean a whole lot of different things depending on where you are, and we learned that from all the email we got.

A listener named James wrote to say that he grew up in a part of Alabama that was settled by German immigrants, and he says the local German bakery there makes a Bismarck that’s about five inches long and fried like a regular donut, and he says it’s filled with custard and cream filling, not unlike a Boston cream pie.

But Brian wrote to say that the Bismarcks that he knew growing up in Minnesota were filled with custard cream, and he writes, “I was really disappointed recently when I ordered a Bismarck near my in-law’s house on the Long Beach Peninsula of Washington, and it was filled with jello pudding.”

Gross.

Yeah, he wrote, “Blah.”

And finally, a listener named Lychee wrote from Salem, Massachusetts to tell us about a local bakery that’s famous for what it calls real cream Bismarcks.

Lychee writes that these Bismarcks are also long, like the other ones, but split along the top, filled with jelly, topped with whipped cream, and then dusted with powdered sugar.

And Lychee continues, “I couldn’t stop thinking about Bismarcks after listening to your podcast, and as soon as I got out of work, I ran down and got one of each.

My waistline is not happy with you.”

I think next time we should talk about the etymology of exercise words or something.

Absolutely.

Well, you can run to the phone.

Give us a call.

The number is 1-877-9299-673, or you can run your fingers across the keyboard and send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Trish Colling from Little Italy in San Diego.

How are you?

Hiya, Trish.

What’s going on?

Hi.

I have a question for you about using the words “an” or “a” before a vowel or a consonant.

And an example I can give you is people often say, “I’ll get with you in a half an hour.”

But the way I learned it in school is to say “a” before a consonant and “an” only before a letter or the word that starts with a vowel.

So I’m hoping you can help me clear that up.

So you think that should be “a hour”?

Well, I say myself “half an hour,” but I would write “half a hour.”

Really?

Yes.

Well, you’re catching yourself.

You’re doing it properly when you’re speaking, and when you’re writing, you’re not doing it properly.

Oh, no.

Okay.

Because there’s one extra little tidbit of information.

It’s not preceding a vowel or a consonant.

That’s not the rule.

It’s preceding a vowel or a consonant sound.

Okay.

So it’s about pronunciation, not spelling.

That’s right.

Okay.

Well, my coworker wins the fight.

Oh, yeah?

What was on the line?

I forgot, actually.

I hope it’s not much.

Yeah, the loser always forgets unless the winner remembers.

It’s true.

But no, this is one that actually throws people for a loop.

And the biggest case is there are a surprising number of people that have problems with the “h” sound.

We’ve talked about this before, and that’s because “hour” is not a really good example of this.

But some words that begin with an “h” followed by a vowel, there are parts of the English-speaking world where they pronounce the “h” and there’s parts of the English-speaking world where they don’t.

I don’t know a single person on the whole planet that pronounces the “h” and “hour.”

No.

Do you, Martha?

No.

I can’t think of a soul.

Half an hour and a half hour are kind of confusing, too.

Well, yeah.

Half hour.

That’s a different question.

Yeah.

But I was going to say, there’s another example which uses “a” instead of — think about euro, the currency in Europe, “e-u-r-o.”

It begins with an “e,” but yet we use a “y” sound to pronounce the word.

And although “y” is sometimes a vowel, in this case, we want to make sure it is “a-euro” and not “an-euro.”

Oh.

Okay.

Good point.

Does that make sense?

It’s all becoming clear.

Cool.

Glad to hear it.

Have we solved it for you, Trish?

Yes.

Thank you both so much.

I really appreciate it.

You’re welcome.

Thank you for your call.

Have a good one.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

You know what?

I could stump sometimes with the simple questions like that.

And what do you do?

Yeah.

Sometimes you’ve got to sound it out.

Right.

So the question of speech does follow from our spoken speech.

Well, exactly.

It’s like trying to tell somebody how to tie their shoes.

You know?

Right.

How do you tell somebody?

I can show you, but it’s difficult to sort of break it down.

Somehow related to muscle memory, right?

Yeah.

It’s hard to break it down.

We welcome your question about articles or pronunciation or how to spend an hour.

Well, we recommend you spend it with us.

The number to call is 1-877-929-9673.

The email address is words@waywordradio.org.

And the discussion forum is waywordradio.org/discussion.

That’s our show.

But if you’re pondering a point of grammar or you’re curious about a word, leave us a phone message any time.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

You can also share your thoughts on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org/discussion.

Our senior producer is Stefanie Levine.

Tim Felten is our technical director and editor.

We’ve had production help this week from Dana Polakovsky and Michael Bagdasian.

A Way with Words is produced at Studio West in San Diego.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette, inviting you to join us next time, right here on A Way with Words.

You say either, and I say either.

You say neither.

♪ Me neither ♪