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Digital timepieces may be changing the way we talk, at least a little. There's Bob o'clock (8:08), Big o'clock (8:19), and even Pi o'clock. Also this week, what do you call that gesture with your fingers when you want to make an image larger on a multitouch screen? In other words, what is the opposite of a pinch? Does anyone use the expression "fat chance" any more? And do the expressions graveyard shift, saved by the bell, and dead ringer has anything to do with weird Victorian burial practices?
This episode first aired May 1, 2010.
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Bob O'Clock
As members of the Bob o'clock Facebook group know, the expression "Bob o'clock" means, "It's 8:08!" The hosts discuss this and other silly ways to tell time inspired by the boxy numbers on a digital clock.
Unpinch
What's the word for the gesture you make with your fingers when you want to make an image larger on an iPhone? Unpinch? Fwoop?
Quixibar
A Wisconsin man says he learned an expression that sounds like quixibar from his father to describe something confusing or befuddling. But he's never heard anyone else use it. Is it unique to his family?
Fat Chance
Does anyone use the expression "fat chance" anymore?
Heteronym Word Quiz
Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a puzzle about heteronyms, words that have the same spelling, but different meanings, like "moped" as in "acted glum" and "moped" as in a motorized bike.
A-GoGo
A San Diego caller wonders about the expression a-gogo, as in the name of a local restaurant, Hash House A Go Go. Where'd it come from?
Appalachian Phrase Origin
You look like "death eatin' a cracker walkin' backwards." In Appalachia, this phrase means, "you look terrible." A caller wants to know its origin.
North vs. Northern
A Dallas listener is struck by the fact that Texans talk about East Texas, North Texas, South Texas, and West Texas. So why, she wonders, do people in other states say things like Southern Indiana and Northern California?
Lexicography Work
Grant talks about his daily work as a lexicographer.
Linguistic Myths Surrounding Taphophobia
A Wellesley College student has been reading about the Victorian fear of being buried alive—also known as taphophobia—and the bizarre 19th-century burial practices associated with it. She's heard that they gave rise to such expressions as dead ringer, graveyard shift, and saved by the bell. Martha and Grant debunk those linguistic myths.
"E" After Family Names
A listener in Buford, Georgia, says his mother's maiden name was Barnett, and reports that he was told that the addition of an "e" to a last name was once an indication that the person was descended from slave families.
Turfing
Why do physicians speak of turfing an undesirable patient?
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Photo by Idealisms. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Music Used in the Broadcast
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| California Soul | Marlena Shaw | Spice Of Life | Cadet |
| Good Times | Chic | Risque | Atlantic |
| The Golden Thrush | Johnny "Hammond" Smith | The Best of Johnny "Hammond" Smith | Prestige |
| Mister Magic | Grover Washington Jr. | Mister Magic | KUDU |
| Chocolate Buttermilk | Kool and The Gang | The Best of Kool and The Gang 1969-1976 | Island/Mercury |
| Love Potion | Johnny "Hammond" Smith | The Best of Johnny "Hammond" Smith | Prestige |
| Let's Call The Whole Thing Off | Fred Astaire | Steppin Out: Fred Astaire Sings | Verve |
Grant Barrett said:
Digital timepieces may be changing the way we talk, at least a little. There's Bob o'clock (8:08), Big o'clock (8:19), and even Pi o'clock.
A couple of years ago, I was trying to get to sleep in a room where the only source of light was the glowing LEDs on the face of my digital alarm clock. Opened my eyes at one point and noticed that the room had grown considerably darker since I had closed them, and turning around to check the time discovered it was 1:11 am. Aha, I thought to myself, that's the darkest this room ever gets.
I then lay awake for the better part of an hour working out when the same clock would be at its brightest.
From the ipod touch manual... "Pinch your fingers together or apart." Apparently, in the view of Apple, the motion is a pinch and the direction is needing to be specified. I suppose this is like walking is assumed to be forward, but a person can walk backward.
I think we need a new word. How about 'Chnip'?
In the same episode, there was a discussion of "turf" as in "turfing a patient to another physician." I'm not sure I buy the "turf out" explanation given by the hosts given the context. In the same medical context, there is often a discussion of "turf" with the sense of "territory." Radiologists, for example, claim medical imaging as their "turf." And there are often long battles over who owns the domain as new specialties take on the tools of their trade. Who owns a the patient's cholesterol level, is that the Primary Care Doc's or the Cardiologist's turf?
Given that common usage, I wonder if the idea of "turfing a patient" is more about moving a patient to another doctor's territory, more than it is a link to the ancient ideas of landing or kicking out.
Grant Barrett said:
A Dallas listener is struck by the fact that Texans talk about East Texas, North Texas, South Texas, and West Texas. So why, she wonders, do people in other states say things like Southern Indiana and Northern California?
There are actually five areas of Texas: North Texas, East Texas, West Texas, South Texas, and Central Texas. They are usually described by the cities in the areas, but do also to the geography of the regions. East Texas is east of Interstate 45 and is a forested region. West Texas is west of San Marcos and is arid and has some elevation changes. South Texas is south of San Antonio. North Texas is the Dallas area and north. Central Texas is east of San Marcos, west of the Interstate 45 corridor, north of San Antonio, and south of the Dallas area (starting around Hillsboro). Interesting trivia: It was in the Texas State Constitution (pre-Civil War) that it could be broken into four different states, and we have had some recent representatives still trying to get it to happen.
John Herzog said:
Grant Barrett said:
A Dallas listener is struck by the fact that Texans talk about East Texas, North Texas, South Texas, and West Texas. So why, she wonders, do people in other states say things like Southern Indiana and Northern California?
There are actually five areas of Texas: North Texas, East Texas, West Texas, South Texas, and Central Texas. They are usually described by the cities in the areas, but do also to the geography of the regions.
Is Houston in East Texas or South Texas? Or is it just it's own region?
Anyway, the caller mentioned northern and southern New Mexico. I grew up in Roswell, in southeastern New Mexico, home to the Eastern New Mexico Regional Fair (and we got out of school every year for the parade on the first day).
But now I live in Southeast Michigan (not southeastern). We have a regional authority called the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. And the other side of the state is referred to as West Michigan - not western Michigan. But head north? Then you end up in Northern Michigan (which - as far as I can figure out, but I'm not a native - usually refers to the northern lower peninsula, not the upper peninsula). I've never heard the phrase North Michigan!
Not sure how this fits into the rule of thumb Martha and Grant gave on the show, but it's a data point for consideration. :^)
Grant Barrett said:
A Dallas listener is struck by the fact that Texans talk about East Texas, North Texas, South Texas, and West Texas. So why, she wonders, do people in other states say things like Southern Indiana and Northern California?
Along with the other states mentioned, this construction is also used in New Jersey. North Jersey, Central Jersey, and South Jersey are all specific regions. It's not "northern Jersey", and definitely not "North New Jersey."
I was really interested in the discussion of a gogo. I was wondering if there was a possibility of a relationship with the instrument "agogo." This is a West African instrument that spread through slavery to the New World, especially Brazil. It retains its name in several former colonies of Portugal, Spain, Britain, and France. It's used to this day in the big carnival celebrations in Brazil and throughout the Caribbean. It is two bells connected by a u-shaped wire and played with a stick.
The reason this connection came to mind is related to the album by the jazz musician Stan Getz. It was recorded at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village and also featured the Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto. The music they were playing is bossa nova, which is based on Brazilian carnival samba.
When Grant mentioned the idea that there is a "festival" connotation to "Ã gogo" in French, my thought immediately went to carnival, originally a European celebration.
Does anyone think that there might be a relationship or a modern reinforcement of connotations between these words or is this just a coincidence?
By the way, it's no surprise that the name of a French club (or gogo dancers) would become popular in the US in the 60s and 70s. This is exactly when clubs modeled on the French "discothèques" led to the creation of "disco" clubs and music in the US.
On an unrelated point, I always thought that the state "compass-point" directions were regional to the south. I grew up in the area that included West, East and Middle (not Central) Tennessee, North Mississippi, etc. When I moved the East coast the "Eastern Shore" and "Western Maryland" sounded like an affectation until I got used to it.
Grant Barrett said:
A Wellesley College student has been reading about the Victorian fear of being buried alive—also known as taphophobia—and the bizarre 19th-century burial practices associated with it.
Mark Twain touched on this in Life on the Mississippi:
"Around a finger of each of these fifty still forms, both great and small, was a ring; and from the ring a wire led to the ceiling, and thence to a bell in a watch-room yonder, where, day and night, a watchman sits always alert and ready to spring to the aid of any of that pallid company who, waking out of death, shall make a movement-- for any, even the slightest, movement will twitch the wire and ring that fearful bell."
spaltor said:
Grant Barrett said:
A Dallas listener is struck by the fact that Texans talk about East Texas, North Texas, South Texas, and West Texas. So why, she wonders, do people in other states say things like Southern Indiana and Northern California?
Along with the other states mentioned, this construction is also used in New Jersey. North Jersey, Central Jersey, and South Jersey are all specific regions. It's not "northern Jersey", and definitely not "North New Jersey."
I was going to post about "North Jersey" etc. too. However, while it is true that no one says "northern Jersey," people do say "northern New Jersey". In fact, I'd say that's the more formal form, whereas "North Jersey," while very common, seems more casual to me.
Like death eating a cracker:
Two other phrases come to mind, similar in that they involve food and death, but different in that in these expressions, death is not the eater but the eaten:
1. "You look like death warmed over."
2. "How do you feel?" "Like death on toast."
I agree with Elysia that these phrases connote queasiness, or that strange, hollow feeling your stomach may get when you have been deprived of sleep. #2 was a pretty common expression at Valparaiso U. in Indiana when I was there (6 years ago) between people commiserating about staying up way too late writing papers. "Death warmed over" just sounds nauseous-- at least, it makes me think of someone using the iffy leftovers that have been languishing in the fridge; by analogy, the person you say this to looks like he or she is but tenuously alive, or like a walking stiff.
Regarding the pinching gestures on Apple touch devices, their developer documentation uses more specific terminology:
Most places use "pinch open" to refer to the gesture, such as with the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines for Web Applications…
pinch open A two-finger user gesture used to zoom in. To pinch open, users place the thumb and a finger (or two fingers) close together on the iPhone screen and move them apart without lifting them from the screen. Compare pinch close.
The one variant I found was "pinch-out" as mentioned in the page for UIScrollView (used by most applications to implement scrolling, pinching, rotating, and such)…
A scroll view also handles zooming and panning of content. As the user makes a pinch-in or pinch-out gesture, the scroll view adjusts the offset and the scale of the content.
ggurman said:
spaltor said:
Grant Barrett said:
A Dallas listener is struck by the fact that Texans talk about East Texas, North Texas, South Texas, and West Texas. So why, she wonders, do people in other states say things like Southern Indiana and Northern California?
Along with the other states mentioned, this construction is also used in New Jersey. North Jersey, Central Jersey, and South Jersey are all specific regions. It's not "northern Jersey", and definitely not "North New Jersey."
I was going to post about "North Jersey" etc. too. However, while it is true that no one says "northern Jersey," people do say "northern New Jersey". In fact, I'd say that's the more formal form, whereas "North Jersey," while very common, seems more casual to me.
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