What do you call that moment when you try to walk past someone on the sidewalk, but you both move in the same direction? Perhaps slidewalking, doing the sidewalk boogie, or stranger dancing? Martha votes for polkadodge. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Sidewalk Dodge”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, guys. This is Zach calling from Franklin, Indiana.
Hi, Zach. Welcome to the show.
Hello.
Thanks.
What can we do for you?
Well, I had a question. I think this is something that’s probably happened to everyone in the world at some point in their lives. And I’d never heard a term for it.
So if you’re out in a public place, like on a sidewalk or in an airport, and you’re walking towards somebody else, just a stranger, you know, naturally the two of you will turn and, you know, veer to one side to avoid a head-on collision. And sometimes, you know, the two of you will just continue to turn the same way to zigzag in the same direction so many times that you end up face to face and it turns out to be a really awkward situation. And I was wondering if you guys had ever heard a term for that.
I know the experience. Definitely. It’s like if you were playing Rochambeau or Rock, Paper, Scissors and you kept coming up with the same answer.
You kept coming up with the same answer every time, right?
Exactly.
How could we do this?
Yeah.
It’s like bad game theory, right? What’s he going to do next? What should I do?
Yeah, and then you can think about it too hard, right?
Yeah, exactly. But yeah, bad game theory, that’s a great way to put it.
Well, that’s a good name for it then, unless you have a better one. Do you have a term for it?
That’s pretty good.
No, you know what? I’ve never actually thought about it, but I just wanted to call you guys and see if you had anything. Because, I mean, I literally think everybody in the world has probably had this experience.
Yeah, yeah, and I’ve seen a couple of examples of words that I think are good candidates for this, one of which is slide walk. I kind of like that if you’re on the sidewalk and you do a little slide walk.
Okay, nice.
But I tell you, Zach, the one that I really love and the one that I actually use is polka dodge.
Polka dodge.
Yeah.
Don’t you like that? It’s sort of like polka dots. It’s sort of like polka, and it’s sort of like dodging each other. So I was polka dodging that guy down on the street.
Nice, yeah, and I like slide walk as well. Because it’s like, you know, you’re just sliding back and forth, and, yeah, that’s a good description as well.
Zach, did you look in Urban Dictionary?
I didn’t.
Well, Urban Dictionary is one of these sites that’s so terrible that it’s wonderful. Like Wikipedia. Like certain radio shows. There’s a slew of terms on there for this. I think most of them were invented by people who are really hoping they catch on, but what the hey, I’m going to share some of them with you.
Indecisijig.
Okay.
Sidewalk boogie.
Nice.
Stranger dancing.
I like that one.
Stranger dancing.
Yeah, that’s nice. And similar to the one that Martha said, same stepping.
Okay.
Yeah.
I like it. I don’t even know where they get this one from, but a lot of people liked it. They gave it a thumbs up.
Walkenschlafen.
It’s like fake German.
Yeah, it just sounds like a made-up German. And here’s another one. Finally, here’s another one that I think has an ulterior motive. They wanted to stop that old canard that there’s no such thing as a word that rhymes with orange. And so their word is flurange. And it means the same thing. And I don’t know why. Why would you say flurange?
I have no idea.
To rhyme with door hinge. But I like Martha’s polka dodge a lot.
I do too. The polka dodge. I was in the airport trying to decide whether to go right or left. I was doing the polka dodge. It is very much a dance. Doesn’t it feel like that? Your eyes connect. Your hands are in sync. Your bodies are moving. We’re polka-dodging right now. You just can’t see it.
So, Zach, of all these, we need a verdict from you. What’s your favorite?
You know what? I think I’m going to stick with polka-dodge and try to spread it out amongst my group of friends, see if it catches on.
Excellent.
Excellent. Thank you guys very much.
Thanks, Zach.
Take care.
You too. Definitely one of those universal life experiences, right?
Yeah, it’s one of those universal life experiences. But I was thinking about this. I mean, I don’t think a word has actually caught on because whoever talks about it, you know, it’s just a situation that you want to get through, sort of like whoever talks about the experience of being at a salad bar. You know, you just want to get your stuff and sit down.
Right, right, right. Although the sneeze shield is automatically kind of funny.
Yeah, love those sneeze guards.
