Hanging Crepe

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Suzanne from Dallas.

Hi, Suzanne, welcome to the program.

Thank you.

Well, I’m calling about an expression that I grew up with. I grew up in Philadelphia, and no one here in Dallas seems to understand it when I use it.

Oh, good, we love these. And it is a hanging crepe. And basically it’s negative. And so I’ll say, oh, stop hanging crepe. Or, oh, he or she’s always hanging crepe. And everybody just looks at me kind of cross-eyed.

And so what do you mean by it?

That they’re being negative. You know, glass is always half empty. Pessimistic. And you learned it where? You learned it from your family?

It’s a common expression in Philadelphia.

Oh, really? Still. Interesting. Yeah.

Well, we’ve definitely heard hanging crepe. Yeah. That’s a familiar one.

Oh, it is. Have you been to any funerals lately? Or maybe I shouldn’t ask that.

What a rude man. Oh, dear. Somebody should kick him in the pants. I can’t take him anywhere.

But they don’t do what they used to do, Martha, right? This would be a more transparent expression if our funeral rituals are what they were.

Right. Right. Yeah, back in the pre-phone call, pre-email, pre-Twitter days, if you wanted to indicate that somebody in the household had died, you would hang crepe, meaning this kind of sort of gauze-like black fabric, outside the house to indicate.

On the house?

Yeah. Yeah, on the doorknob, on the door, around the windows, maybe on the eaves. Sure, yeah, even on the vehicle, you know, on the horse and buggy even.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, so it has a very, very vivid original sense, but I’ve definitely heard that, and I’ve often heard doctors talking among themselves about hanging crepe. I mean, I think that’s a term in the medical world.

If you hang crepe with a patient, then what you’re doing, if you’re hanging crepe, then you’re painting the worst possible prognosis.

Well, yeah, you sure wouldn’t want to go to that doctor, would you?

Well, maybe not, but for a doctor, it’s to their advantage because if they say that a patient’s going to die and then the patient doesn’t, then they look like a hero.

Under promise, over deliver, right? And if the patient does die, then they look like they’re very wise and good at telling the future.

Right. So it’s kind of a good position for a doctor to be in.

That’s true. But this is at least 100 years old, this expression, probably a lot longer because the hanging crepe tradition lasted for quite a while.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe they just didn’t do that down here in Texas. I don’t know. I don’t know what they did.

But we can assure you that it’s definitely a legitimate expression. It’s sort of like Debbie Downer. Do you ever watch Saturday Night Live?

Yes.

Okay, and you remember Rachel Dratch has this character, Debbie Downer?

Yes. Wah, wah.

Yes. Okay. She’s hanging crepe. Just tell your friends that. Maybe that’ll help.

Okay. All right. Well, that’s very helpful. Suzanne, thanks for your call.

Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

All right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

A bit of business advice in a 1917 issue of The National Drug Clerk. Instead of being dissatisfied with your position and the boss, it’s up to you to be constructive. Boys, don’t hang a crepe all your lives.

Right on. Be positive. Accentuate the positive, right?

That’s right. And send your questions to words@waywordradio.org. And you can always call us, leave a message anytime, day or night. The number is 1-877-929-9673.