Meg says that when she was growing up near Boston, Massachusetts, her dad used to entertain kids with a phrase that sounded like Ish biddly oten doten bobo ba deeten dotten wanotten shhhhh! That’s most likely adapted from a camp song from the 1950s called “Flee Fly Flo” that has lots of different versions, is also called “Flea Fly Flo,” and may have roots in scat singing. Parts of the song have shown up in other songs, such as Chubby Checker’s 1964 song “Cu Ma La Be Stay.” The 1944 movie National Barn Dance featured the song “Down Home Rag (Deeten Dotten Dooten),” which includes some similar-sounding nonsense lyrics. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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