For the Birds

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

My name is Doug Moore, and I’m calling from Evansville, Indiana.

Hey, Doug, welcome.

What’s up? What can we help with?

Well, see, my sister received a tarnished silver serving tray from my dad, and she had read online where you can use, like, a cheap toothpaste and remove the discoloration.

So, yeah, she starts to polish up the tray, wipe it on there, and polish it off.

Gets done with the tray, and it worked.

Yeah, next, she moved on to the forks, knives, and spoons.

And so she’s going through the drawer, cleaning them off.

And after about an hour and a half, she’s like, this is for the birds.

Yeah, this is for the birds.

I’ve heard it before, and I think Paul Corn Leghorn said it on the cartoons.

This is, this is, I say, this is for the birds.

I think you’re right now that I think about it.

So you’re wondering why we say this is for the birds if we’re disgusted with something or just exasperated?

That’s correct, yes.

You got any ideas about that?

Well, I talked to my aunts and uncles, and they remember hearing it when they were growing up in Alabama.

But other than that, I mean, I’ve heard it a few times, and every time it comes up, it’s kind of something to laugh at.

But it’s not very popular, and not anymore.

But I think people know what it means if you say it, right?

This is for the birds.

This is for the birds.

All right. So, Doug, here’s what we know about it. It dates back to at least the 1940s. I have seen it in print in 1941, which means it’s probably older than that.

And it really exploded in use during World War II, which was a really huge time for the burgeoning of slang and sayings and idioms in the United States.

What’s really interesting about it, there are longer versions of it that I can’t say on the air, but they amount to it is poo for the birds.

And the idea is this thing is so bad, it’s like what the horse leaves behind and that the birds peck at, if you know what I’m saying.

Oh.

So it’s like horse manure that the birds are going after to get some nutrients from.

Right.

Yeah.

Now makes sense.

So that’s why it’s for the birds because it’s basically poo.

Right.

Yeah.

I can see that.

Makes sense, right?

In my mind growing up, I always thought it was vultures picking at the carcass of a dead animal.

It’s for the birds, meaning it’s basically as worthless as a roadkill.

In my mind, I just thought it referred to something that was bird-brained.

Bird-brained, okay.

You know, small-brained.

Yes.

But no, as Grant says, it has to do with what the horse leaves behind and the birds pick at.

And there’s a nice confluence there with the idea that it’s chicken feed or it’s bird seed, meaning it’s small potatoes or it’s worthless or it’s a small amount of money.

Right.

All of these kind of work together to suggest that anything that’s for the birds is not something that matters very much.

Yeah, not worthwhile.

Yeah.

Not worthwhile.

Yeah, kind of worthless.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there you go.

All right, Doug, thanks for calling.

I really appreciate it.

Oh, thank you.

Take care.

Thanks, Doug.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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