In an earlier episode, the hosts heard from a woman who, as a teenager, was scolded by her grandmother for wearing a skirt that Granny said was almost up to possible. The woman wondered about that phrase’s meaning and origin. Grant shares listener email about this question, plus information he’s found linking the term to James Joyce’s Ulysses. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Up To Possible”
A few episodes ago, we took a call about a woman whose grandmother used to chastise her for wearing a short skirt.
She’d say, “Why, I can almost see up to possible.” Remember that, Martha?
Oh, yeah. Right.
And the caller wanted to know more about possible used in that way.
Mm—
Well, let’s just say that we gave an answer that is of no consequence.
Incomplete at best.
Incomplete. Our listeners have, however, come up with a better answer, and this is, for certain, a good one.
The story that they’ve told us takes a lot of shapes, but it always describes a way of avoiding talking about certain parts of the body, so to speak, right?
And it’s usually put this way.
First, you wash down far as possible.
Then you wash up far as possible.
And then you wash possible.
How did we miss that?
Well, I don’t know.
It actually rang some bells once it was mentioned in the forum.
Matt and Kay had something to say about it on our discussion forum.
A bunch of other people chimed in by email, and some more people said some stuff on the discussion forum.
And once they gave me the clue, I did a lot more digging.
And do you know what?
James Joyce uses a variation of this in Ulysses, which was written in about 1921.
He does?
He does.
This is what he writes.
Remember, this is a page with basically no sentence punctuation whatsoever.
Right.
He writes, “When I said I washed up and down far as possible, asking me, and did you wash possible?”
Okay.
There we go.
So we know for certain that it goes back to at least 1921.
It is a pass-along thing.
I wonder, I wonder, I wonder if it’s not Irish or if it’s something that is more well-known in the British Isles.
I don’t know.
The written record on this is scarce, but I was so glad to have Matt and Kay and the other people point out a better path to take.
Yeah, yeah.
We love it when our listeners do that.
And you can always do that by calling us at 1-877-929-9673 or sending us an email.
That address is words@waywordradio.org.
And the discussion forum that Grant mentioned, where there are always lively conversations going on, is waywordradio.org/discussion.
