Ned in the Primer

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Keisha Smith. Hi, how are you?

Hey, Keisha, where are you calling us from?

I’m calling from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Oh, well, thanks for being on the show. What can we do for you?

Okay, I have a phrase. My mother is up in age, elderly, and she’s from this house.

And I heard it a million times growing up.

If you do something that, you know, you’re embarrassed about or you feel embarrassed of how you’re looking or feeling sheepish, she would say you’re looking like Ned in the primer.

And I’m like, what? Who is Ned in the primer?

What is a primer?

Interesting.

Keisha, where did your mother grow up?

Troy, Alabama.

Troy, Alabama.

Okay, nice. All right.

So what was she meaning when she said that? How did you react?

Like if I did something that’s, you know, worthy of being embarrassed, as children do, or if you’re describing something that someone did that clearly they should, you know, they should be embarrassed because of what they did, she’d say, well, he’s over there looking like Ned in the primer.

Or, you know, that was how she described the embarrassing event.

She would say what happened and then say, yep, you look like Ned in the primer.

Oh, wow.

And have you heard anybody else say that besides her?

No, I have not.

Interesting. So Ned in the primer.

We know. What about Nancy? Did she ever say anything about Nancy?

Yeah, she would describe a female and had an embarrassing event. I do believe there was a Nancy. I think so.

Aha.

Well, there were a series of books with Ned and Nancy as these kid characters that were taught people to read, I think, as far back as the 1950s.

And I think Ned was the troublesome young boy, and Nancy was the prim little girl, kind of stereotypical male-female separation there in the narrative.

And anyway, so if you are Ned and the Primer, you are not that bright, frankly.

What is a Primer? Is she saying Primer?

Yeah, Primer, yeah. The word’s got two pronunciations.

So a Primer or a Primer, P-R-I-M-E-R, is a book that teaches you something.

Most people in our country would know it as a book that teaches you to read.

Oh, like a kid’s book.

Yeah, like one of the first books, like the primary book.

Yeah, the very, like this is like…

Oh, okay.

So Ned was kind of the rascal, huh?

Yeah.

Well, yeah, he’s just kind of the gently misbehaving boy.

The uses of that expression, Ned, in the primer, go back to at least the 1940s.

It actually pops up in the congressional record of all places in 1948.

It does, really?

Yeah.

What?

Yeah, so it’s got a good long history to it, 50, 60 years.

Well, he was born in 1944, so yeah, that’s right.

Oh, there you go.

So it was already in use by 1948.

Huh.

I can just picture a congressman talking about another congressman looking like Ned and the Primer, huh?

Well, no, they’re actually talking about World War II and the Nazis, but yeah.

Oh.

Well, you’ll be amazed.

Isn’t that something?

Okay, well, thank you.

That was quite helpful and enlightening.

I’ve always wondered.

I’m really glad you asked that question.

I’d never heard of that expression before.

Thank you so much, Keisha.

Well, thank you.

Take care now.

Thank you very much.

Bye-bye, Keisha.

Thanks.

Take care.

All right.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Ned and the Primer.

I had never heard that.

It’s cute little kids, little paintings, you know, little rosy cheeks.

Yeah, well, like the Dick and Jane stories.

Yeah, exactly.

Capering around in the yard, dog, and everything’s pristine and perfect.

You know how those books tend to be.

Yeah, but Ned sounds like a more complex character than Dick or Jane, don’t you think?

Yeah.

He has issues.

Take your character and then put them in jeopardy, and that’s how you write an interesting book.

That’s the advice, right?

The standard writing advice?

Sure, yeah.

How not to be boring when you’re writing a book.

Right.

Have that character.

Have a want.

Have a want.

Have to want something.

That’s the idea.

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