When Marilyn from Boston, Massachusetts, used the expression Them’s the berries! with neighbors in her hometown of nearby Arlington, Massachusetts, she was surprised they were unfamiliar with it. The phrase means something like “That’s life” or “That’s how the cookie crumbles.” The phrase the berries itself can connote something either extremely good or extremely bad. The berries is strongly associated with other picturesque 1920s slang like the bee’s knees and the cat’s pajamas, and comes from an earlier form, all to the berries, meant “first-rate.” The phrase all to the berries goes back to bookkeeping language from the early 1800s, as in all to the good and all to the bad, for credits and debits in a financial ledger, which then spawned many all to the {noun or adjective} variants. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Them’s the Berries!” Can Mean “That’s Life” and “All to the Berries” Comes From 1800s Ledger Entries”
Hello.
You have A Way with Words.
Hi.
Hi.
Who’s this?
Grant.
Hi, Grant.
This is Marilyn from Boston.
Boston.
Hi, Marilyn.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
What can we do for you?
So I grew up in Boston, over a town outside of Boston, Arlington.
And in the early eighties, I moved to New York City.
And then fast forward, thirty eight years later, I moved back here because of COVID.
I’m now retired, and I volunteer at a food pantry, wonderful food pantry.
And recently something happened, and I said, well, them’s the berries.
And the folks that heard me had never heard of it before.
And I said, really?
So I said, well, the meaning is that that’s life or that’s how the cookie crumbles.
And I remember that we used to say that all those many years ago.
But I don’t ever remember saying it when I was in New York or hearing anybody say that.
So anyway, so I I asked my longtime friends that grew up here in my family of when when they heard Them’s the Berries, and everybody to a person knew it.
But the people in in my town, in Arlington, so the people that did not know it, even though they were local, they’d never heard of it before.
And I said, well, maybe it’s an Arlingtonian thing, which would be bizarro.
Maryland, was it always a kind of expression that meant tough luck or that’s the way the cookie crumbles?
Or did you also sometimes mean something was very good or very bad or just kind of an extreme form?
Well, here, actually, I did speak to somebody and they said, Well, that’s a good thing.
That’s them’s the berries.
That’s good.
But 90% of the people I asked here said, Well, that’s the way that’s life.
That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Gotcha.
How interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah, the berries can mean either one of those extremes, actually, you know, whether it’s good or bad, you know?
It’s the berries.
Or if, for example, you’re at the end of your rope or you’re out of patience with somebody, you might say, Well, that’s the berries.
You know, that’s the very end of my patience.
You’re working my last nerve.
And I think Grant is asking about if you ever understood it any other way because I think more commonly if you use the expression the berries, if somebody says, You’re the berries, they mean that you’re terrific or you’re the very best.
And this expression is strongly associated with the 1920s slang, you know, that era of the bee’s knees and the cat’s pajamas and the eel’s ankle and that kind of thing.
But there’s actually an earlier form that goes back to at least early 1900s of all to the berries, meaning thoroughly first rate and exceptionally attractive.
But there are lots of different kinds of variations of that as well.
Right, Grant?
Yeah.
The all to the berries actually is descended from all to the good or all to the bad, which is from the early 1800s.
That comes out of bookkeeping or finance.
Refers to the credits and the debits on a financial ledger or a balance sheet.
And so that all to the good and all to the bad kind of turned into a snow clone, as we call them, where the pattern and the expression is kind of replaced with other things to kind of repeat the pattern.
And so you would get people in gambling or bookmaking, as they call it, who would write about losses, or winnings when betting or wagering all to the good or all to the bad.
And then by the late 1800s and the early 1900s, other forms start to appear where that good and bad are replaced with things like peaches, all to the peaches, all to the pickles, all to the velvet, all to the mustard, all to the elegant.
But then, of course, the berries one, for some reason, was the one that lasted, and then the berries, as a standalone expression, lasted where the other ones did not.
Well, I don’t know what is about my town, but maybe there’s a little negative part here.
But mostly everybody says, Well, them’s the berries.
You know, that’s the way it goes.
Yeah, yeah.
At the very end of something.
Yeah.
Cookie’s already crumbled.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Get used to it.
Yeah, yeah.
Get used to it.
Marilyn, thank you so much for calling.
And also, just want to say, good on you for volunteering at the food bank.
We appreciate that.
Yeah.
You are the berries, Marilyn.
I am the berries.
You guys are the berries.
I feel like the The mustard, but okay.
Take care of yourself.
All right.
Take care.
-Bye bye.
-Bye bye.
Well, we hope you go all to the phone, or you all go to the phone and call us, (877-929-9673.
