Tammy in Atlanta, Georgia, says her father-in-law often uses the expression That’s too much sugar for a dime, suggesting that something is more trouble than it’s worth. Variations include too much sugar for a cent, too much sugar for a penny, too much sugar for a nickel, and too much sugar for a shilling. Some people use the expression too much sugar for a dime to express skepticism. Versions of this phrase go back to one from at least the 1830s, too much sugar stick for a cent. Her father-in-law also describes something really fine as finer than frog hair, which is pretty fine indeed. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Too Much Sugar for a Dime”
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You’re listening to A Way with Words, I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Groucho Marx had A Way with Words.
He was an expert at turning a particular kind of phrase, like this one, “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.”
Now what makes these sentences funny, of course, is that the speaker takes you down one mental path and then suddenly makes a sharp turn and takes you someplace you never expected to go.
Love those.
Well, it turns out there’s a word for this.
It’s a term of rhetoric, and it’s “paraprosdokian.”
Paraprosdokian.
Yes, let me spell that, P-A-R-A-P-R-O-S-D-O-K-I-A-N.
This isn’t one of the more common terms of rhetoric, I guess.
No, no, but it’s really handy to have this word if you want to find a whole lot of paraprosdokians on the Internet.
It’s from two Greek words that mean “beyond or beside expectation,” and it’s been a staple of comedy ever since antiquity, and now people like Stephen Colbert use it all the time.
Does it have to be funny, though?
I mean, it often is, and the best examples are, but it could just be unexpected turn of phrase, right?
Yeah, yeah.
That’s just straightforward, right?
Yeah.
Do you have any favorites yourself?
You know, I do have one now that you mention it, and it’s incredibly short, and I think it is a paraprosdokian.
Decades ago, when Ronald Reagan was president, Rich Little was famous for imitating Ronald Reagan, right?
And Reagan had this particular speech habit that he would imitate, and so one of his gags was, he’d do this fake interview thing, and somebody would say, “Mr. President, how are you feeling today?”
And he would go, “Well…”
And then he would just stop, because Reagan always said, “Well, I want to tell you about the Russians and the missiles,” right?
Because you’d expect him to go on, but actually, instead of saying “well” as a sentence marker, he was saying “well” as an adverb, meaning “I’m well,” and it was just perfect, perfect right turn.
You’re like, “Wait a second. Oh, oh, it just takes you a second to realize he’s not going to follow it up.”
That is the answer, and it’s perfectly coherent.
That’s it.
I suppose that works.
Yeah, yeah.
But you’ve got more.
I see a big stack of papers there.
I do, and I’ll share some more of them later in the show, but let me just leave you with this one.
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
Boy, don’t I know that one.
Well, this is the place to talk about language, about paraprosdokians, or prose, or poetry, or words and where they come from.
Call us, 1-877-929-9673, or you can email us, words@waywordradio.org.
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Barb, and I’m from Indiana.
Hi, Barb.
Where in Indiana are you?
Evansville, Indiana.
Oh, well, we’re on the air there.
Wonderful.
Well, what’s up?
I have a crazy family word that I would love to know a little more about.
It goes all the way back to my grandparents, who are not living anymore, and it goes all the way down through my generation, and my children use it, but I’ve never heard any other family use the word before, so I thought it would be fun to throw at you guys.
If you’re wrestling around with someone, or horsing around with someone, and you want to be released from that situation, you yell “Calf Rope,” C-A-L-F-R-O-P-E.
My husband teased me about it, he’s never heard of it, and all the people I’ve told the story to never have heard of the word before, so I was just curious to know where it came from, and how it got started, and why our crazy family uses it this way.
So the kids are goofing around, one of them’s got the other one pinned, or the one on the ground in order to get out of it, instead of saying “Uncle” like the rest of the country, they’re going to shout “Calf Rope, C-A–F-R-O-P-E!”
Correct.
You got it.
And one more question, Barb.
Is your husband from the same area?
I say he’s a Midwestern fella, but he’s actually lived in Illinois and Missouri and Iowa growing up with his family, so I claim him as a Midwest boy, but he’s really not from this part of the country, no.
But your grandparents, are they from that part of the country?
They are.
They’re from southern Illinois, and then after they were married, we’re in southern Indiana.
Huh, how about that.
Okay.
Well, that makes a lot of sense, because that expression is spread around that area, smack dab in the middle of the country, and in Texas, Oklahoma, right in that area.
How about that?
So there’s more than just Barb’s family.
I’m happy to know that.
Barb’s crazy family, I think was how you put it.
So your family may be crazy, but it’s not because of this particular expression.
So there are a couple of dictionaries that have entries for this, if you want to find out a little bit more.
The Dictionary of American Regional English, which we always talk about, and even if you just go to Google Books and look up “holler calf rope,” you’re going to find a ton of places going back more than 100 years where it’s used in fiction and nonfiction.
So the image, of course, is of roping a calf, right?
Right.
Exactly.
So you didn’t calf rope us.
We had an answer for you.
I knew you would.
I knew you were way too smart.
Well, great.
Thank you.
Thanks, Barb.
Hey, Barb.
Thanks for calling.
Have a great day.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
I know there are a lot of crazy families out there that have a lot of crazy language, because you call us and you tell us so, and we do so love to hear from you, 877-929-9673.
And we really enjoy the stories that you send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.
Tell us about your family’s crazy talk.
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Gary Whitlock in Fallbrook, California.
Hi, Gary.
Well, I was thinking the other day about the phrase to take a gander, and I’m not sure I’ve ever actually even heard it, but I have read it and wondered how that came to mean to take a look at something.
Okay.
Mm—
That’s a great question.
Do you have geese or animals of any kind ever lived on a farm?
I have lived on a farm, never had geese, but I’ve met up with some, and they’re not very friendly birds.
No, they’re not.
You know, if you find a dark alley and there’s honking in it, just walk on by.
Yeah, run away, right?
But, you know, it’s really straightforward.
Geese have these necks, and they do this strange craning because of the way their eyes are positioned on their head, and so they have a very characteristic movement of the head.
And so when people are straining their own necks to kind of look over or beyond or they’re in a crowd, right?
Martha’s doing it now.
It’s just more like a chicken than a goose, though.
Yeah, I think of geese as they look at something, but I’m not seeing it as something, at least as when you’re saying, “I’m going to take a gander, let’s take a gander,” you’re not looking intently at something, you’re kind of, you’re looking at it as something that’s just something I’m going to take a look at, but I don’t have to study it too hard.
I don’t know if I’ve got that right or not, but that’s what it seems like to me.
Yeah, maybe, but in general, it’s universally agreed among lexicographers and etymologists that the gander comes from the geese.
So maybe it’s not exactly what geese do, but it’s similar to what they do.
They crane their necks, and so do we, and we look kind of silly when we stand on tippy-toe and strain our heads up to look above a crowd just to see what’s happening, right?
Right.
Yeah, but Gary, I think you’re describing the motion very well, and I’ve spent a little time around geese, too, and even when I think about it now, I sort of unconsciously cover my backside.
Oh, because they’re going to nip you, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They’re going to goose you, you know?
I don’t want to take a goose at anything.
No, and I don’t want them taking a gander back there, but yeah, that’s the idea.
Yeah.
It’s straightforward.
It’s straight from the male geese.
Okay.
Thanks for calling, Gary.
Okay.
Well, thank you for your answer.
Thanks a lot, Gary.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Call 1-877-9299-673 or email us, words@waywordradio.org.
We’re going to have more paraproze dokings, those statements that take a sharp turn.
Okay.
Of course, there’s the famous one by Will Rogers, “I belong to no organized party. I’m a Democrat.”
I like that one.
That’s true.
And I like this one from Mitch Hedberg, “I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.”
That one cracks me up.
Send us your funny turns of phrase, the stuff that just kind of takes the crook on the road and doesn’t go back, 877-9299-673 or words@waywordradio.org.
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello.
This is Patricia Blackshear.
I’m calling from Frankston, Texas.
Well, hi, Patricia.
Welcome to the program.
Hey, there.
Well, I have a question.
I have a saying that I’ve only ever heard my mother use.
I now use it regularly, as does my husband, and it is “too much sugar for a dime.”
And what are the circumstances?
Where would you use this?
Are you in the grocery store or is it something at home?
It applies to any number of circumstances.
The best I can figure is it basically means something that is too much effort for the result, too much hassle.
So if I say, let’s make a suggestion or something, my mother will say, “Well, that’s too much sugar for a dime,” and nix the suggestion, whatever it may be.
So it would be not worth the hassle, that kind of thing?
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
Okay.
That’s very interesting because I have heard this several times, and it either means that, too much of a hassle, or just a little too unbelievable.
Yes.
Have you heard it that way, too?
My mother uses them interchangeably.
Something that’s sort of too good to be true, I don’t quite believe it, so it’s very interchangeable.
It took me a while to figure out the nuance between those two things.
Right, right.
Too good to be true or more trouble than it’s worth, right?
Yes, exactly.
Too much sugar for a dime.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There is an old Merle Travis song from the ’50s by that name.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It’s on our website.
If we can find the original.
Do you know the song?
Can you sing it?
No, but I can show you the YouTube clip with Merle Travis singing it.
Very nice.
And in that case, it’s more of the skeptical one, more of the, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding. That’s too much sugar for a dime?”
That’s the one that I’ve found.
Yeah?
And I found one person compared it to cotton candy, where they take a penny’s worth of sugar and they spin it up so that it’s all fluffed up and mostly air, and then they sell it for a dime.
So you have the impression that you’re getting this big wad of candy, but really when you compress it down, it’s a tiny little cube of sugar.
I don’t know if that’s the source of it, but I thought it was a great way to try to explain it.
Yeah.
Wow.
Very interesting.
I have never heard anyone else use it.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
It’s out there.
It definitely has a southern inflection.
Not the kind of thing you’re going to hear in the New England, probably.
And it’s got a little bit of history behind it, so it’s not new, nothing that came up in the television generation, that’s for sure.
Very interesting.
Maybe I will start using it outside of my own home then.
Oh, yeah.
If it’s legitimate and not something my mother made up.
I think that’s safe enough.
Yeah.
You don’t have to be closeted about it.
I was going to say, I hear language that’s not appropriate outside the home, outside the home all the time.
Don’t we all?
Hey, Patricia, thank you so much for calling.
I love this expression.
Well, thank you all.
Thank you all.
I appreciate it.
I love your show.
Keep up the good work.
Oh, of course.
Thank you.
That’s too much sugar for a dime.
You’re always handing me a line.
That happens in the best convertible.
Always bright, that all you got, a swimming pool and a fancy yacht.
I’ll bet you don’t know nothing about a float.
They float.
That’s too much sugar for a dime.
That’s too much sugar for a dime.
That happens in the best convertible.
Always bright, that all you got, a swimming pool and a fancy yacht.
I’ll bet you don’t know nothing about a float.
They float.
That’s too much sugar for a dime.
That’s too much sugar for a dime.
That happens in the best convertible.
Always bright, that all you got, a swimming pool and a fancy yacht.
I’ll bet you don’t know nothing about a float.
They float.
That’s too much sugar for a dime.
I’ll bet you don’t know nothing about a float.
I’ll bet you don’t know nothing about a float.
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