Cherry Lifesaver

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how’s it going?

Super duper. Who’s this?

This is Molly from Moscow, Idaho.

Hi, Molly. Welcome to the show.

What’s cooking?

Well, I had a question.

My grandpa and all of his brothers have lots of colorful sayings that have trickled down to all their children.

And I have a couple of really good ones that I haven’t really heard anywhere else and I was wondering about them.

One of them is I have a cousin, one of my great uncle’s sons, that always says, I feel like I’ve been ironing all night in high heels.

Wait, his son says that?

Usually something a guy says.

Oh, no kidding.

I feel like I’ve been ironing all night in high heels.

And this means that he’s super tired?

Super exhausted.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Right.

Yeah.

It would be terrible.

Yes, it would.

And another one of my great uncles, he always used to say that he’d been to more than one county fair and goat roping.

To mean that, you know, he’d been around.

Right.

Yeah, goat rope or goat rodeo, those expressions are widely used, particularly in the West, to mean a crazy chaotic situation or a giant mess.

So just something that’s really disorganized.

Yeah. And if you’ve been to one of those, then you’re more sophisticated than the folks back home, right?

So, but you’ve never heard the ironing all night and high heels before?

No, but that thing is transparent.

I can figure that one out pretty quick.

Yeah, I don’t recommend that.

I have iron. I haven’t worn the high heels, but I have ironed.

If you only knew, Grant.

It’s pretty great.

They all have a pretty good tradition of colorful sayings.

I’m not sure.

That’s great.

And so these are widespread throughout your family in Idaho?

No, like everyone has their couple of ones that they say.

Kind of like their own personal catchphrases.

Yes. Yes, for sure.

What’s yours?

I like to tell people that they’re a cherry lifesaver because cherries are the best lifesavers.

Oh, you think?

They’re not just a lifesaver. They’re a cherry lifesaver.

That’s nice.

Now, Molly, what leads you to be so observant about the language of other people?

I have a semester of my master’s in linguistics, and I aspire to finish it one day.

Okay.

And this keeps it light, keeps it fun?

Yes.

I really like language.

I like observing accents a lot.

Yeah, it’s interesting.

I have one friend that’s from Cincinnati, and I can definitely hear his accent, but everyone else thinks I’m crazy that he doesn’t have an accent.

But I can hear it in the vowels.

It’s right there.

Molly, you’ve got a ton of great stuff here.

Anything else for us before we go?

I don’t think I’m going to shoehorn anything else into this.

Thank you.

Well, you keep our phone number handy.

Give us a call another time when you come up with some more, all right?

Okay, thanks a lot.

And good luck with your studies.

Thanks.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, this is a nation of colorful expressions, and this is the place where we love to hear about them.

So share yours, no matter where you’re from.

Just make them radio safe.

877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.