Don’t Get Into Any Jackpots

Hi there. You have A Way with Words.

Yes, this is Ron Ellingworth. I’m calling from North Pole, Alaska.

North Pole, Alaska? Wait. And is this the town that gets floods of Santa letters every year?

Yes, it is. And Santa Claus, a person changed his name legally to Santa Claus and is actually on the city council of North Pole.

What? Are you serious?

I’m serious.

Well, Ron, this is great already, but did you have a question for us?

I did. When I was growing up in Iowa, my aunt, who was the eldest in a family and probably about 20 years older than my mother, had an expression that she used for us. Whenever we would go out and be doing something, she’d say, don’t get into any jackpots.

And we took that to mean something along the lines of don’t get into trouble or don’t do something that would get you into trouble, things like that. But I’ve never heard other people use that expression.

So this is in Iowa. Where were you in Iowa? And how long ago would this have been?

Iowa, it was in Council Bluffs.

Council Bluffs, okay. She was actually born in the Sandhills in Nebraska. But this was in Iowa.

I was just through that part of the country recently and saw the riverboats and the gambling. So it’s all kind of coming together here in this question about jackpots, because the theory is that it relates to literally being in a poker jackpot that you really should not have been in in the first place, where you keep putting more money into the pot even though your cards are terrible.

So you’re kind of stuck. And the only way out of this is either just fold and lose your stake and lose the money that you put in or to tough it out and hope that everyone else folds because you’ve managed to trick them into thinking you have great cards.

So that’s being in the muddle part of it. Like it’s basically playing out of your depth in poker.

Okay. Okay. So you’re in a jackpot. The poker stuff and the riverboats and all that, the gambling casinos and things that are there now, were not there. That’s all pretty recent stuff in there. But that doesn’t mean that it didn’t have anything to do with that.

Yeah, I didn’t mean to suggest that it comes from that part of the country or those riverboats. It actually goes back to the 1800s for sure. And it has a nice other later use, although it’s possible this is the earlier use and we just haven’t found it in print.

Jackpot referring to a snag of logs in a river, either on land or in the water, just the kind of thing that might interrupt the flow of work or block a thoroughfare or that needs to be cleared before you can farm, that sort of thing. So metaphorically, it’s a tight spot or a predicament.

Yeah, a mess, though, a mess of just difficult stuff that you have to solve.

Yeah, it was used in logging sort of sarcastically, right?

Mm—

Jackpot.

Yeah, I mean, that sounds more like what I think her use was.

Yeah, but the problem with it is the dates don’t match up. The gambling use, the figurative gambling use and the literal gambling use is older. And then it looks like, as Martha said, the logging and forestry use is not only later, but sarcastic.

Whereas they’re saying, oh, look, a lot of logs. That’s what we’re here for. Oh, jackpot, when really it’s a kind of a mess that they have to handle.

That could very well be what prompted that, because it seems like that’s a legitimate comparison.

Yeah. Interesting. Okay, cool.

Thank you for your call. We really appreciate it, Ron. And do not get into any jackpots. And tell Santa hello, of course.

I will try not to. Unless you’ve got pocketies.

Right. Mr. Claus is watching, clearly. Take care now.

Exactly. Thanks, Ron. Bye-bye.

Bye.

Grant, was that the first phone call we’ve gotten from North Pole, Alaska?

I believe so.

I love it. I think it is. Well, we want to hear from more of you, and we want to hear from Santa Claus, Indiana.

Yeah, 877-929-9673, or email words@waywordradio.org.