Sean from Buffalo, New York, says that whenever someone burped, his mother would say Well, bring it up again and we’ll vote on it. There are many of these so-called wrongs of passage, such as Six more and we’ll have 7-Up! Another good one: Greetings from the interior! Sean’s father, who was from New York, used to say just like downtown, a saying we’ve discussed before, to mean something was satisfactory or excellent. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Greetings from the Interior”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, I’m Sean from Buffalo, New York.
Well, I wanted to talk to you today about a phrase that my mom brought into the family, and I’m not quite sure how far back it goes, but whenever anybody burps, she used to say, well, bring it up again, we’ll vote on it. And I think she may have gotten that from her father. She was Canadian, okay? She was from St. Catharines, Ontario. And besides all the other stuff that they bring in, like A and all the wonderful vernaculars from Canada, I got this one. And I think she may have gotten it from her father, who maybe got it because he was talking about folks in the House of Commons. That when you bring something up, they discuss it and then they vote on it.
Well, it’s possible that they independently derived it, but it does have some other history elsewhere. Other people do say it and have said it. I think I found it in yearbooks, high school yearbooks from the 1930s in the United States. Yeah. So it’s got some history outside of Canada. But, you know, North American English doesn’t know borders. It does tend to cross freely back and forth across the border, particularly with many Canadians kind of clustered at the bottom of the country there, like an Etch-a-Sketch that’s been shaken.
Yeah. But, you know, that’s not the only—so is that the only one that she used? Just every time someone burps, bring it up again and we’ll vote on it, or were there other ones?
No, that was pretty much it. But my dad was from New York City. Yeah. He was from Westchester County. And he would always say, just like downtown. And I’m like, really? When something went right? Oh, yeah. That’s a great one. We’ve got research on that on our website, just like downtown. So definitely look for that at waywordradio.org.
Okay. He didn’t say that about burps then. That was a whole other suggestion. No, no. It’s whenever anything went correct. It was like, oh, yeah, that was smooth and silky and really nice. And that was well done. And just like downtown.
Sean, there is a category in folklore for those kinds of expressions that you say when somebody breaks wind or burps. And it’s those bodily noises are known as instead of rites of passage, they’re known as wrongs of passage. And there’s a lot of those sayings. We had a listener named Cynthia who emailed us. She went to junior high in suburban Boston. And she says, they said six more and we’ll have seven up.
Oh, very nice. And other people say things like greetings from the interior. I think that would be a good one for Canada. Most definitely. For all our listening audience there, they should start adopting that one. Greetings from the interior. But I thought it rather nice that she had this phrase instead of saying, excuse me.
Yeah. Chastising somebody. Yeah, because it’s something that happens to every human, right? Yeah, most definitely. Well, thank you so very much for your time.
Yeah, our pleasure. By the way, there is a book of Prince Edward Island sayings, and Bring It Up and We’ll Vote On It does appear in that book of Prince Edward Island sayings. So there’s a Canada connection for you. Almost excellent.
Well, you have a great day, okay? Yeah, our pleasure. Take care of yourself. Thanks. God bless. Bye-bye.
