Cowboy Up and Money Bomb

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

It’s time for another round of Slang This, our weekly slang challenge.

Grant, today’s contestant from the National Puzzlers League is Dave Dickerson of New York City.

Hello.

Well, you may recognize Dave’s name from his occasional features on the show This American Life.

He’s also a serious puzzler.

Dave, what’s your specialty?

Variety cryptic crossword puzzles.

Huh. What is that?

What does that mean?

The strange stuff you see in the back of Harper’s or the Atlantic Monthly, it used to show up at Atlantic Monthly.

Oh, the CIA doesn’t put those there?

Yeah, no.

I always thought those were secret messages to their operatives.

You know, it’s funny.

In the 90s, there were about four or five venues you could write those things for.

And I was actually making a couple hundred dollars a month doing that.

And then they all collapsed within a month or two of each other.

Do you think that you were a part of that collapse?

Yes, in the sense that I don’t think the structure was able to hold that much greatness.

Well, let’s see how you do today, wise guy.

You guys have really gotten me into the mood for a slang quiz, so let me tell you how we play, Dave.

Sure.

Grant’s going to give you a sentence with a blank in it, and then he’ll give you three slang words that might fill in that blank.

So your job will be to figure out which slang word fits best.

And I haven’t seen these before, so I’ll be joining you.

And we’ll try to figure it out together, okay?

Sure. Here’s the first part of the quiz.

We’ve got two questions today. I’m going to read a sentence.

You fill in the blank. We’ll see how you do, okay?

Okay.

Of course you have to tell her. Grow a pair for once.

You need to blank and just tell her you want a divorce.

Is it A, surrender Dorothy and just tell her you want a divorce?

Is it B, cowboy up and just tell her you want a divorce?

Or is it, see, stir the fire and just tell her you want a divorce?

I guess it depends on why you’re divorcing someone,

because I think surrender Dorothy would suggest a completely different reason.

Oh, right.

Something about the rainbow flag, right?

But I’m going to say cowboy up.

I like that.

Because that would be someone, because it sounds like the person in this scenario

is having trouble with his courage.

Yes.

And I’m going to be presumably male.

And therefore, the cowboy thing is more relevant in that respect.

There we go.

Exactly right.

Be a man and do that.

To cowboy up means to act like John Wayne in one of the old westerns.

It’s be tough, self-reliant, brave, as you say, courageous, right?

Right.

Grow a pair was the clue there, right?

Yeah.

So, yeah, we were talking about a man.

Here we go.

Another one.

Thanks to a 24-hour blank, the campaign was able to raise an incredible $10 million and put the candidate back in the running.

Was it a 24-hour lemonade sale, a 24-hour candy cane parade, or a 24-hour money bomb?

Wow.

That is so cool.

A candy cane parade?

Yeah, it’s just like your childhood fantasy come real.

Oh, my goodness.

That and a teddy bear’s picnic?

I’m back to Babes in Toyland with Laurel and Hardy.

What was the lemonade sale, candy cane parade, and a money bomb?

That’s right.

Now, Money Bomb sounds like you’d be spending money rather than getting it coming in.

I’m going to guess lemonade sale where you’re squeezing out the last of anything you have to sell, taking lemons and making lemonade.

Nice.

I like that.

That’s my suspicion.

So you two are in agreement on this?

Well, Dave, you’re ruling out the candy canes.

Well, I was trying to think.

A candy cane parade, what would that be?

A candy cane parade sounds like a dog and pony show, right, where you get people to show up.

No one pays for a parade.

Well, I’m thinking of the Lollipop League.

Yeah, I don’t know.

The Lollipop Guild.

The stripes remind me of flags or whatever, so it might be a patriotic thing.

But honestly, although the Canaanites are seasonal, it’s throwing me.

They’re all made in China.

They’re not patriotic.

What are you talking about?

So really, lemonades are the only thing I could think.

Well, and of course, I’m at this point thinking of the McCain campaign.

And I associate them more with lemons.

What, they’re bringing it in a quarter of a time?

I don’t understand.

He seems grumpy is all.

Okay, I think it’s a good guess.

I like lemonade sale too.

I’m going with Dave.

He seems to know what he’s talking about.

You’re both wrong.

Oh, come on.

That is how I got through grad school.

We were so close, but it was C, not A.

The correct answer was Money Bomb.

Ron Paul’s campaign, for example, used a bunch of these.

They take an intense period, say 24 hours long, and they petition everyone they know in all their databases and all their mailing lists and try to get them to donate money to raise a lot of money for that period.

It’s kind of like a false sales event.

You know how they have these celebration spring sales event from Toyota on television where they’re trying to sell these cars?

It’s not a holiday, but they’re trying to make it like it’s something.

That’s what a money bomb is.

Are the other two also terms?

No, they’re completely made up.

You made the bomb.

Candy Cane Parade is a stroke of genius, I have to say.

That sounds like it deserves a niche in the slang biome.

I liked the way that you were saying that it was a dog and pony show.

It could easily be another word for that, right?

Yes.

Dog and pony show is a little outdated.

Maybe this can be the dog and pony show of 2008.

That would be great.

Well, I got to say, Dave, I had really great fun.

This was a hoot.

This was a hoot.

Yay.

Thank you so much, Dave, for signing with us.

Thank you, Dave.

You can find out more about the National Puzzlers League at puzzlers.org.

And you can join us right here on the show with your questions or comments about slang or about anything else language-related, call us at 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

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