My ears pricked up when the conversation turned to "skosh," as this was my father's go-to word for a small amount of something (often related to food or drink). I had to laugh when the caller mentioned his father's service in Okinawa because my father served there also -- with the Air Force in the early 50s. Prior to the explanation of its Japanese origin on this episode, from the sound of it (I had no idea how it was spelled), I'd have guessed it was maybe Italian or Germanic.
Nice to have the mystery solved, eh?
I heard "skosh" a lot growing up, and I always assumed (taking into account who I heard it from) that it was a Yiddish term. Then I signed up for Japanese at community college and learned better. About the same time I remember an ad for relaxed-fit jeans that claimed they had "a skosh more room".
As for what to call it when elephants get themselves a drink, I'm almost positive I've heard the expression "take water" or "take on water" when the nature documentaries have a nomadic herd of them stopping off at the local oasis before traveling on. Matter of fact, I think I've heard the same expressions to refer to steam locomotives.
"She can't hold a candle to the old flame I still carry a torch for."
About the "dun-dun-DUN!" and other stings: there's a semi-profesional/profesional (mixed group) anime reviewers group called the DesuDesBrigade or D2Brigade who produce their own anime-themed podcast called DesuRattle. These guys can't seem to go an episode without one of them stings. Most used is something like "whackety-shmackety-doo!!" pronunced with a sing-song tone and as silly voice as possible and another one I can't, well - spell, but I call it "the fail sound", which I believe comes from Road Runner cartoons when the coyote does something exceedingly stupid and fails yet again at catching the Road Runner. That one would be pronunced in a sing-song tone as well. All this is done for comedic effect, of course, as the podcast frequently wanders off into a kind of impromptu performance.
The people on the Brigade are all in college, and I think 3 out of 4 of them study something related to media/TV/broadcasting and the like, so it is possible that their frequent use of these (including some less sophisticated company-appropriate like "bow-chicka-wow-wow" and the like) might be related to their education.
Here's a sting from "The Mighty B", another cartoon your caller's 8-year-old daughter might be watching. In this episode, the main character vocalizes the stings for dramatic effect.
The Mighty B!: Ten Little HoneyBees
The first sting is at 5 minute mark. At 8 minutes and beyond, there are several stings or sting parodies.
@Halszka, I've heard the "fail sound" called the "sad trombone".