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If you want to sound defiant, you could do worse than exclaiming,"Nixie on your tintype!" This phrase, meaning something to the effect of "spit on your face," popped up in Marjorie Benton Cooke's 1914 book, Bambi (not related to the sweet little deer). Kristin Anderson, a listener from Apalachicola, Florida, shares this great poem that makes use of the phrase. This is part of a complete episode.
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It isn't "nixie," it's "ninny," as in the Spoonerized poem my mother (b. Fairmont, MN 1905) used to recite:
Once there was a molicepan,
Saw a bittle lum
Sittin' on a pence fost,
Chewin' gubber rum.
"O," said the molicepan,
"Won't you simme gum?"
"Tinny on your nintype,"
Said the bittle lum.
World Wide Words Newsletter recently (Feb. 23) had a short article on "not on your tintype" in which they quoted the poem:
Once a big molice pan met a bittle lum
Sitting on a sturb cone chewing gubber rum.
“Hi,†said the molice pan, “won't you simme gum?â€
“Tixxy on your nin type,†said the bittle lum.
Ice-breakers, by Edna Geister, 1920.
The article suggested that "not on your tintype" (which sounds like a variant of "nixie on your tintype") was in use with a meaning something like, "not on your life."
Here is a slightly unrelated question. I did a search for Ice-breakers by Edna Geister and found it at Amazon with a sample of a few pages. On the first page I saw the word "ehaperone." I immediately thought this was a typo of "chaperone" because "chaperone" fit well in the context. But as I read further I found "ehaperone" used two more times on the first page. I then did a search for "ehaperone" and found five hits on Google. Each was in a newspaper and in each one I would have suspected a typo if it were the only time I had come across this word. Here is the question: Is "ehaperone" really a word? I've never heard of it. Or am I just continually uncovering typos?
I think what you're seeing with "ehaperone" is an OCR error. Someone scanned in a document in a font with an oversized serif on the letter c, the scanner read the character as an e instead, and there's your new spelling.
Some of these errors can almost make sense. I find reference on the web to "ace of dubs" and "she shrieked in tenor".
Good eyes Ron. I was puzzled about where that "ehaperone" came from. I concur it was likely an OCR error. I use OCR on occasion, and see those errors all the time. In another font, it could have "ohaperone" or "chaperorre." Dick is indeed uncovering typos, but not the usual anthropomorphic ones. Then again, maybe we can fault the programmers. 🙂
I know this show is over a year old, but it was just rebroadcast, so it's new for me. My great Aunt also taught me this poem, but without any nixies
Once there was a molicepan, who met a bittle lum
sitting on a sturbing cone, chewing gubber rum
"please," asked the molicepan, "won't you simme gum?"
not by a sam dite, said the bittle lum
I assume "not by a dam site" or is it "damned sight" carries a similar insult
I just heard this for the first time as well, and I was struck by the possibility that this could have been one of those silly songs that parents sing to children as they tweak their noses or belly buttons. Or, based on one of Grant's questions regarding the rhythm of the poem, maybe it's a song that children used to keep time while jumping rope?
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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