Jim in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, says that during childhood games of touch football, he and his friends would count out the required three seconds before rushing as Mississippi one, Mississippi two, Mississippi three. Other ways of counting seconds, whether for touch football or the time between a flash of lightning and thunder, include one Mississippi, two Mississippi or one thousand one, one thousand two. In England, this kind of rhythmic counting is sometimes rendered as Piccadilly one, Piccadilly two. Many English-speaking countries have a whole menagerie of words to choose from, including hippopotamus, chimpanzee, crocodile, and alligator. In France, the word Mississippi is sometimes used, along with crocodile. In Poland, the word for “crocodile” is also used for counting. Swedes sometimes use the Swedish equivalent of one thousand one. Germans start at the number 20, using einundzwanzig, zweiundzwanzig, meaning “21, 22,” and a similar pattern is used in Hebrew and Danish, although Danes also measure time by counting “barrels of beer.” This is part of a complete episode.
In the 1970s, talk-show host Johnny Carson had a recurring bit where he’d declare, “It was so cold…” to which the audience would respond, “How cold was it?” Carson always offered a goofy response, such as “It was so cold the ice cubes were wearing...
Lindsay in San Diego, California, says some of her younger coworkers use the phrase out of pocket to mean “unavailable,” but she’s also heard it used to mean “acting out of line.” The meaning of this phrase usually involves one of three things...
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