So…A Button on Your Underwear, Ice Cube, and Tuna

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Daniel Cruz, and I’m calling from Gardnerville, Nevada.

Well, what’s on your mind?

My aunt always used this phrase where if somebody left the word so hanging out there, she would interject with so a button on your underwear. And I’m just wondering where that came from.

Okay.

Run this bias again. So somebody just kind of has a lingering, unfinished thought with the word so, and then she says.

Yeah.

So if there was, if she was asking you a question or me a question and I just didn’t quite have an answer about it and I would kind of be muddling over it and be like, so. And she would just interject, so a button on your underwear. If it were me, I would have a lot of buttons on my underwear.

Yeah, it was pretty frequent when I was a kid.

Okay.

And Daniel, what would happen next?

Then? Usually she would just laugh. Okay. And I would be sitting there perplexed like, what the heck is Kathy talking about? What am I supposed to do?

Martha, these rejoinders are very common, right? These things that you say when somebody leaves you this awkward opening in a conversation. So yeah, Daniel, I’m wondering if you’ve heard any other versions of this?

Honestly, no, I’ve never heard any other versions of it. And I haven’t heard anyone but her do it.

Oh, really?

Okay.

Maybe it’s not as common as it used to be, Martha.

Well, Grant and I have heard a lot of these over the years, a lot of different versions of it from listeners who’ve written in and called in with versions like sew a button on an ice cube or sew a button on tuna fish. As Grant suggested, it’s just one of these funny rejoinders. It’s sort of like, you know, a kid might start a conversation with, hey, and, you know, the dad joke is, hey is for horses. Grass is cheaper, straw is free, marry a farmer and you have all three. Or somebody hesitates after, well, and somebody says, that’s a deep subject for such a shallow mind.

Well.

Yeah.

Adrienne in San Diego sent us a message saying that her parents would say, sew buttons on your old man’s pants. And Christina also in Southern California told us her dad would always say, sew buttons on your butt.

That’s what.

That one’s good.

And you also have sewing buttons on eggs or Easter eggs or on a wooden duck or sew buttons on a balloon and then you’ll have a blast and variations on that. And sewing buttons on your vest or your t-shirt and other clothes.

A brick wall.

Brick wall, yeah.

And then also, sew, sew, suck your toe.

And a really long one. Somebody says, sew, and then you say, sew buttons. Buttons are made of brass. Buttons keep your child’s just falling off your, rhymes with brass.

So not just in your family, Daniel, at all.

No, not at all.

No, not at all, clearly.

But, yeah, it’s usually just this idea to kind of for parents or the older generation to nudge the younger generation towards, you know, complete expression, full thought, kind of not leaving things hanging. It’s also just kind of the intergenerational teasing that is so ordinary.

Yeah.

Well, another version of this, too, is when a kid keeps pestering a parent to tell them what they’re doing. You know, you can say, oh, I’m just sewing buttons on underwear. I’m sewing buttons on ice cream. And the kids are like, what?

Well, when you put it that way, it totally tracks for what Kathy was trying to say to me when I was young.

Was she a teasing sort?

Oh, yeah.

So, Daniel, we’ve added to your collection now.

Definitely.

There’s a lot of those, and I look forward to using them on all of my friends.

Yeah.

Excellent.

All right.

You take care now.

All right.

Thank you.

You too as well.

I really appreciate that.

Yeah, our pleasure, Daniel.

Sure, Daniel.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

So if you want to talk about language, you can email us words@waywordradio.org or call or text 877-929-9673.