Went Down My Sunday Throat

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Pam from Camden, South Carolina.

Hello, Pam. Welcome to the show.

Hey, what’s going on, Pam?

What my question is, is my husband is from Minnesota, Minneapolis, which, you know, he thinks is the best state in the country.

And he has all these funny terms that he would come up with.

And I always kind of called him on it.

But one of the terms that he uses whenever I’m choking is, oh, it went down your Sunday throat.

And I said, that’s like a creepy thing you’re talking about.

He goes, no, my mom used to say it all the time.

And I said, I don’t think that’s valid.

I think, you know, I don’t know if that’s like a real term or not.

So I just wanted to see if you all had any background on the term Sunday throat.

Yeah, that’s a weird one.

And it doesn’t seem to be particularly regional.

We don’t even know the origin of this expression, although you will hear it all over the place.

It’s not that common, but you will hear it from time to time if you’re joking.

And we don’t really know except that, you know, traditionally there’s been something different about Sunday as opposed to every other day of the week.

Right. In our culture, it’s it tends to be a special day.

And so it’s different from all the other days in the week and sort of in the same way.

If your food is going down the wrong tube there, it’s going down a different tube.

It’s not going down the usual one.

And that’s really about the best we can do on that.

Okay.

Well, that’s more credit than I gave it.

So that’s good.

Yeah, sometimes it’s called the Sunday lane or the Sunday pipe,

But it just has to do with it being different from the usual pipe.

It usually goes down.

And now, Martha, there are some other Sunday items that are special, too, that aren’t the throat, right?

Like your Sunday go-to-meat-and-clothes.

Oh, yeah.

Or your Sunday face.

Your Sunday face is your kind of fake face that you put on when you’re being insincere.

Right.

And Sunday face is also a slang term for your backside, for your derriere.

Because it used to refer to a sanctimonious expression.

You know, you put on your Sunday face and you look very prayerful and pious.

And people took that term and turned it into a slang term for your buttocks.

Nice, nice.

That’s kind of like what would happen to us when we would go to church.

We would have the fight in the car and then we would pull it together when we went through the door.

So that’s valid.

Exactly.

Put on your Sunday face.

Keep the food going down your weekday throat, Pam, and take care now.

Thank you.

Love your show.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thank you, Pam.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, your Sunday going to meet and close.

These are your fine clothes, not like your play clothes.

Right.

Right.

And then there’s your Saturday night bath.

Saturday night bath?

What?

I have to take one like every night or every other night.

You know, I knew somebody growing up who talked about taking her Saturday night bath.

I think that that was just to get ready for church in the morning.

Right.

Yeah, because I can’t imagine getting all the kids ready for early morning church, right?

Yeah, you got to start early, right?

Clear your Sunday throat and get on the line, 877-929-9673.