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#68799 05/05/2002 8:43 PM
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The "rabbit" subthread of Wordmap reminds me of another old custom: If you are walking with someone, and you two have to pass on either side of an obstacle (a tree, a light pole, etc), you both must say "bread and butter" to avoid having a fight later in the day (this is vaguely remembered). Anyone have anything similar? Anyone know where it comes from?


#68800 05/05/2002 9:05 PM
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I'm familiar with the custom, but was not exposed to it during childhood. I occasionally do it now, and whoever I'm with seems to understand the reference. Or perhaps they are ignoring me in the hopes I won't continue to spew apparently random phrases ...

As a child, I learned the "step on a crack, break your mother's back" litany.


#68801 05/05/2002 9:11 PM
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Dear AnnaStrophic: I found a chat site where someone reported the same superstition, but without any interpretation as to origin. You have to scroll down to third entry by "moshmom"

http://pub45.ezboard.com/fabundantwishingwellfrm2.showMessage?topicID=16.topic


#68802 05/06/2002 11:54 AM
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No idea about origin, AnnaS, but I do remember my mom putting a heritage twist on it - we often said "Lutefisk and Lefse".


#68803 05/06/2002 12:25 PM
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You Minnesotans are something else. If I tried to walk and say "Lutefisk and Lefse" at the same time, I'd trip and fall.

#68804 05/06/2002 1:21 PM
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How about, when you say something at the same time as a friend, you're supposed to "link pinkies and make a wish".

The other form is to say "Jinx, you owe me a Coke" and as you get older "Jinx, you owe me a beer".

How about my mother's admonition against stirring things with a knife: "Stir with a knife, and you stir up strife."


#68805 05/06/2002 2:58 PM
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AnnaS - An ex-coworker of mine just wouldn't let it happen. He never explained it other than "bad luck", but he would immediately turn around, go back and *immerge on my side.


#68806 05/06/2002 4:18 PM
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Dear AS: Word Detective has a long paragraph about "Bread and Butter"

http://www.word-detective.com/100297.html#breadandbutter


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JINX YOU OWE ME A COKE!!!
Inky, binky, dinky, winky,
Wash it down the kitchen sinky,
Alley oop, alley oop, ba-dinky.
THE...
King of France
Wet his pants
Right in the middle of a ballroom dance
Yodel-ay-hee-hoo! (Yodel-ay-hee-hoo!)
Na-na-naaah, na, na, na-na na-na-na-na-na - HUUUUH!


#68808 05/07/2002 1:49 AM
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My Mexican mother-in-law always said "Company's coming" if anyone dropped a spoon. Well, actually she said " Cae cucharita, viene visita." [smartarse-e] but it doesn't rhyme in English


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As kids and young teens in the 60's (in the New York/New Jersey area at least) there was a customary game we played called "Paddidle" where, if you saw a car coming with one headlight you had to yell "Paddidle!" or "No Paddidle", or the friend next to you could start punching your shoulder sequentially to "one Paddidle, two Paddidle,..." or just punch your shoulder a good one and say, "Your forgot to call Paddidle!" Evidently, though, this goes further back to the 50's and 40's and was played between boys and girls as a dating game, and if the girl didn't say "Paddidle" first the guy with her got a kiss. And sometimes, it seems, the (ahem) rewards were just a little better for truck and bus Paddidles as specified in the full breakdown of the game and it's history as per the word "Paddidle" on this amusing Wordwizard link:

http://www.wordwizard.com/clubhouse/founddiscuss.asp?Num=2422

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#68810 05/07/2002 11:24 AM
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Ay, Consuelo ~ it's much more complicated than that...

If you drop a spoon, a child is coming to visit.
If you drop a fork, a woman is coming to visit.
If you drop a knife, a man is coming to visit.
If any of the aforementioned implements are dirty, it means they're going to come hungry, so you should be ready to feed them!

Look at all the brain cells I've devoted to this stuff...


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you had to yell "Paddidle!" or "No Paddidle", or the friend next to you could start punching your shoulder

And how did you decide which of you didn't say "Paddidle"?

Not unlike my burning question of Boston drivers concerning who of the two people involved actually made the eye contact.


#68812 05/07/2002 4:26 PM
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DON'T DROP THE SOAP!!!



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And how did you decide which of you didn't say "Paddidle"?

Dunno, Faldage...in thinking back I'm confusin' myself, don't quite remember how it went. Praps the first person in a duo or group who saw the one-headlighted car yelled, "Paddidle!", and started punching on the nearest shoulder until "No Padiddle!" was called (usually just one good punch). I remember one of "the guys", who happened to be my best friend, had a technique of extending his middle knuckle and grinding it into your sinews. Since we palled around all the time, I remember saying, "Why don't these people fix their damned headlights, I'm tired of having a sore shoulder!" My buddy was the catcher on the high school baseball team so he had a pretty solid quick thrust there...got practice from pounding his mitt, I guess.



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a technique of extending his middle knuckle and grinding it into your sinews

We called this a noogie (the "oo" pronounced like in cookie or good, not like in goon or dubloon), said the Boston driver.

I'm watching you...


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My mother taught us "Paddidle" years ago. But the way she tells it, when you were out on a date and one of you saw a one headlight car, you called "Paddidle". If it was the guy who called it first, he got to kiss the gal. But if the gal called it first, she could smack him. Gives a whole new feeling to the game, especially if it was a first or second date.


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Angel's got it right, except you don't say "Paddidle".
The correct way to play is to say "Popeye". Then, regardless of who saw the one-headlit car first, the boy, not the girl, always gets the kiss. That's the rules down south.



#68817 05/09/2002 12:50 AM
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I remember playing Padiddle, but that reminds me of another game we played as young boys. Two boys would be walking along the street. Whenever one of them spotted a discarded Camel cigarette pack, he would pick it up and challenge the other boy, "Hits or cracks?" On the inside of the cigarette pack there was always a code consisting of capital H or C followed by a single-digit number. If the answer given was hits, and the code read, say, H3, the one who answered hit the other boy three times on the upper arm. If he guessed wrong, he received the hits or cracks. I have no idea how widespread this game was, or if indeed our group of young ruffians invented it. Somehow there seemed to be plenty of Camel packs to be found in those days.


#68818 05/09/2002 1:12 AM
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We called this a noogie (the "oo" pronounced like in cookie or good, not like in goon or dubloon), said the Boston driver.

We used noogie too, Hyla. But that was when you got someone in a headlock and roughly rubbed their scalp with your knuckle, especially if they had a crew cut.



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We called this a noogie
Guess what we called it, Hyla? A frog!


#68820 05/09/2002 1:55 AM
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This from the Wordwizard link:

I thought the Midwest was rife with inanities like that, but I've NEVER heard this term! Maybe it's an East Coast/Southern thing. The closest we have here is yelling "Slug Bug" (or, alternatively, "Punch Buggy") and hitting someone else in the arm when we see a Volkswagen Beetle. I still do this one--it's fun as long as you see the Beetle first. (Otherwise, you get a pretty sore arm! *G*)

Dec. 4, 2001

Response from K Allen Griffy (Springfield, IL - U.S.A.)


Now come on all of you Midwesterners, fess up! Who're the Slug Bug or Punch Buggy players among you!? Surely, you, musick... Whooah! You seem like the Punch Buggy type!





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#68821 05/09/2002 10:02 AM
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Epa, Juan. Lookie here!

Car Games in the second half of the thread!

http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=68927




#68822 05/09/2002 11:51 AM
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I friend recently confused me when she said she gets noogies from eating ice cream!!! Upon seeing my un-understanding look, she described it as a brain-freeze. What do other people call that? And has anyone else experienced such a thing? I haven't.


#68823 05/09/2002 12:55 PM
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noogies from eating ice cream!!!???

To me, and this isn't anything like an everyday term for me, noogies involve headlocks and scalp and knuckles. Maybe ice cream as an apology from the noogier after giving them to you. But I would hardly think of ice cream as an integral part of the process.


#68824 05/09/2002 2:08 PM
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I haven't.

My God, girl, run out and get yourself a Slurpee!!!!!! (OK, I know it's hard to find a 7-11 in Ontario so Mac's Frostee will do.) Now eat it too fast. Does your head hurt? Then you have a brain freeze! 7-11 markets them this way!!!!!! I used to live in Winnipeg, the Slurpee capital of the world! More Slurpees per capita consumed there than anywhere else!


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Filed under weird thing you learned when your kids were in college

when my son started college, he started at Carnege Mellon U in Pittsburg, PA. one of the perks of the science lab, was an almost unlimited supply of liquid nitrogen-- all you needed was a safe container to transport it in. (any real glass thermos would do.)

very early in the term, my son learned that liquid nitrogen, combined with a carbonated drink (a fountain soda, say) would result in instant, super cold slurpies!

the gas suspended in the liquid prevented it from freezing as a solid mass. and the liquid nitrogen, was so cold, it made super cold ice crystals.. and a sure fired brain freeze.



#68826 05/09/2002 2:44 PM
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b-b-b-b-but WHY would I want to MAKE my head hurt????? I think I'll walk right on by the 7-11 (there are quite a few of 'em in Toronto, by the way)


#68827 05/09/2002 11:00 PM
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An even better (worse?) way to get a brain freeze is by eating home made ice cream! Once the ice cream has ripened, it appears so much colder than commercially prepared ice cream. The headache starts at the front, and works its way back across the top of the head. But it's worth it when you taste that fresh, creamy taste of homemade ice cream. Especially some great strawberry ice cream eaten with nice, salty potato chips! I don't want to hear any "YUCKS" until you have tried it!


#68828 05/09/2002 11:19 PM
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ice cream eaten with nice, salty potato chips!

You've brought back some memories, Angel! My mother's favorite sweet-n-salty combo was ice cream (any flavor, I think) and pretzels. And my dad's was cantaloupe sprinkled with salt. Haven't thought of that in years.


#68829 05/09/2002 11:29 PM
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#68830 05/09/2002 11:45 PM
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re:In his opinion, if you don't have to wipe your brow, blow your nose, and dry your eyes after every mouthful, it ain't a curry

i find i get that kind of a reaction to the "medium" spicey chicken tika masala i can buy in my grocery frozen foods sections.. labeled "authentic flavors"! Hot can be a matter of what you are used too!


#68831 05/10/2002 12:11 AM
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In his opinion, if you don't have to wipe your brow, blow your nose, and dry your eyes after every mouthful, it ain't a curry.

I highly recommend "Dave's Insanity Sauce" which I believe is made in Perth. Two drops per person will usually achieve the above result.


#68832 05/10/2002 12:13 AM
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#68833 05/10/2002 3:16 AM
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Interesting, Max, the you have ice cream and pretzels in Zild. That's a Pennsylvania treat that I was raised on.

Pretzels are very popular in PA. Chocolate covered ones were an exotic rare treat when I was a youth; nowadays they are so common you see them in 7-11s (convenience stores).

Then there are soft pretzels. The best ones are fresh made, a foot in diameter and an inch thick, still warm from the oven, chewy, yeasty, and covered with plenty of large-grain salt. I learned to really appreciate them from my grandmother, who doted on them. Her favorite part (and mine) was the knots.


#68834 05/10/2002 3:24 AM
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#68835 05/10/2002 4:47 AM
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I highly recommend "Dave's Insanity Sauce" which I believe is made in Perth. Two drops per person will usually achieve the above result.

My favourite in this category is "Ouch!", a concoction by one J. Hicks of Sandy Lake, PA. Unlike some sauces of this ilk it is not only quite hot, but it has a good taste.

This is really just to mark my return to the board after a short absence, and my finding over 25,000 new posts since I last looked. I haven't read them all—nor will I, of course—but youse do seem to have been living in interesting times.


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#68836 05/10/2002 5:11 AM
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#68837 05/10/2002 8:58 AM
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Pretzels and ice cream sound good.

Also, fries dipped into chocolate ice cream are good, too.

And a word related to homemade ice cream:

dasher

Dasher is ironically named, I think, because it's the device in the center of tub that you sink into the ice. Why ironically named? Because the dasher doesn't dash at all. It just sits there while the tub dashes around it, the tub gradually losing speed till even a strong-armed churn turner can barely turn the handle any longer.

I will say to my dying day that hand-cranked homemade ice cream is better than that from electricity-powered makers.




#68838 05/10/2002 12:49 PM
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I assume he always favors curries.



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