OK Moon Talk

Grant talks about how that great American export, the word OK, was part of the first conversation on the surface of the moon. This is part of a complete episode.

Transcript of “OK Moon Talk”

One of the books that I recommended as a gift to people was the book OK by Alan Metcalf.

Right.

And we talked just for a moment about the pervasiveness of this word, right?

Oh, yeah.

Did you know that it was part of the first conversation on the moon?

I’m not surprised.

Yeah, but it’s just so ingrained in English.

OK is such a part of our language that we speak it and we say it at times that we wouldn’t, you know, we don’t even know that we’re saying it’s like the verb to be.

Right. Anyway, the conversation with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, you know, Armstrong says shut down and they turn the engines off.

And then Aldrin says, OK, engine stop. And it’s just there it is, that word on the moon.

And I wonder sometimes if the record that they included with,

Remember the satellites that they sent way out into space?

Was it Voyager with the brass plaque and the photograph record and Nixon’s voice and the music and stuff?

I wonder if the word okay is on there.

If not, we’re going to have to recall it.

Bring it back.

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