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Posted By: gift horse What a Goober! - 09/14/04 03:14 PM
Hello!

Recently someone on another board called Dr. Phil a goober. I started laughing because -- I agreed and -- back when I was a mere barefoot child in the Ozark Mountains, we would occasionally refer to certain clueless individuals as goobers.

The trouble is, the only definition I can find for goober in the dictionary is "peanut". Ho Hum! But I know I've heard goober used as a synonym for a specific brand of uneducated fool, dummy, nitwit, etc. many times, even since moving out of The Sticks.

Has anyone else heard goober used as an insult? Or is my obscure upbringing showing again?

Posted By: TheFallibleFiend Re: What a Goober! - 09/14/04 03:17 PM

Goober means peanut, but it's also form of polite slang for "tallywacker."

k


Posted By: gift horse Re: What a Goober! - 09/14/04 03:24 PM
Thanks!

But....uh....what's a tallywacker?

Clueless as ever,
Dawn

Posted By: clockworkchaos Re: What a Goober! - 09/14/04 03:33 PM
definitely said goober in ky.

Posted By: TheFallibleFiend Re: What a Goober! - 09/14/04 04:15 PM


What most sane people would call their "penis."

Other euphemisms: Wiener, member, organ - except goober tends to be considered a little more polite and it's usually (but not always) applied to a child's penis - a word your grandma might use, "Ow! The little man has caught his goober in his zipper!"

k



Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: What a Goober! - 09/14/04 04:25 PM
never heard that, FF.

a goober is just a doofus.

Posted By: gift horse Re: What a Goober! - 09/14/04 04:38 PM
"Ow! The little man has caught his goober in his zipper!"

YOUCH! Well, thank you for that image. I must say you gave me my first belly-laugh in over a week. Thank you!


Posted By: musick Re: What a Goober! - 09/14/04 06:11 PM
http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/georgelindsey/

*********

I have heard it as slang for 'sputum'... that green-ish mucus one coughs up after a dose of expectorant.

Posted By: Father Steve Mayberry, RFD - 09/14/04 06:58 PM
Jim Nabors played Gomer Pyle on the Andy Griffith Show in 1963 and 1964. He was replaced by his "cousin" Goober Pyle, played by George Lindsey, from 1965-1968. Both roles depicted hicks.



Posted By: tsuwm Re: Mayberry, RFD - 09/14/04 07:16 PM
coming full circle:
goober <> country hick <> Gomer <?> gomeral

gomeral - [Brit dialect] a half-wit; dunce, fool

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: Chopped Goober - 09/15/04 01:12 AM
Well, musick, Father Steve mantled you, as they say on another board, but I figured I'd let someone (or sometwo) else bring it up before I admitted to my small degree of separation from George Lindsey: he is (was?) my third cousin. I'm guessing goober means "pea-brained" or similar.

Posted By: Jackie Re: Chopped Goober - 09/15/04 02:29 PM
Goober = pea-brain, definitely.

George Lindsey: he is (was?) my third cousin Cool! Are you enough on his good side to be named in his will?? [slavering e]

gh, when you were a barefoot child in the Ozarks, you had to walk all the way to the TV to change channels and it was uphill both ways, right?

Posted By: musick Partial Goober - 09/15/04 03:30 PM
Cool! Are you enough on his good side to be named in his will??

It sounds like they are closer to 1 1/2 degree of seperation...

...he is (was?) my...

Posted By: belMarduk Re: Partial Goober - 09/15/04 05:47 PM
Isn't a goober those jujube type candies? You know...they are clear and have very sweet "fruit" tastes and are chewy like rubber. As if you only added a few millilitres of water in Jello.

Oh, I know, like those bears.

Posted By: musick Re: Partial Goober - 09/15/04 05:57 PM
Yes, they were pitched in the same advertisment song "Goobers and Raisinetes".

Posted By: gift horse Re: Chopped Goober - 09/15/04 09:42 PM
gh, when you were a barefoot child in the Ozarks, you had to walk all the way to the TV to change channels and it was uphill both ways, right?

TV? We had a cardboard box and would take turns sitting in it at night, entertaining the family. Yes, lots of hills, but what's a channel?

Posted By: Father Steve Re: Chopped Goober - 09/16/04 04:57 AM
Father Steve mantled you, as they say on another board ...

I am assuming that mantling someone is a bad thing to have done, so I will apologize for it, without having any sense of what it is that I did which constituted this sin.


Posted By: Faldage Re: Chopped Goober - 09/16/04 10:46 AM
in the Ozarks, you had to walk all the way to the TV to change channels and it was uphill both ways

At least in the Ozarks you didn't have to worry about it being through the snow.

And, DaddyioS, 'mantling' is 'chopping someone's liver.'

Posted By: gift horse Re: Chopped Goober - 09/16/04 02:27 PM
At least in the Ozarks you didn't have to worry about it being through the snow.

True. No snow in the house...usually. But it snowed quite a lot -- outside -- where I grew up.

And, DaddyioS, 'mantling' is 'chopping someone's liver.'

Sorry, but I'm drawing a complete blank with that one, Faldage.

Edit: Oops! Never mind! I just saw the other posts in reference to Father Steve mantled you, as they say on another board ...
That's what I get for not reading my entire thread first.

Posted By: musick Pin your liver to the mantle - 09/16/04 05:53 PM
...as they say on another board...

I was under the impression (my memories') that this is the original place for *mantling.

But then again...

http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=101395

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Have no fear, Dear Father, 'tis not all that bad. Besides, I do believe you were off (with a new wife) knitting the fabrics of life together whilst all that was going on...

Posted By: Father Steve Mickey Mantle - 09/17/04 05:53 AM
Now I GET it! Musick posted a link to an Andy Griffith website and then, a few minutes later, I posted a note about how Goober related to the Andy Griffith Show, which I ought not have done because anyone who clicked on the URL provided by Musick would have learned the same things I put in my post, which means I ignored him, he being first in time, which is, as the young people say, my bad. Sorry to have ignored you, Musick. Not sure how it happened but it did.


Posted By: Jackie Re: Mickey Mantle - 09/17/04 01:20 PM
Not to worry, Father Steve; it happens all the time. Hey, guess what? I heard last night that Jeopardy is going to be doing interviews for contestants in your area: I think you ought to try out.
( Eep--good thing I proofread a second time: I had first put Fatner Steve. )

Posted By: Father Steve Jeopardy (TM) - 09/17/04 04:16 PM
Sure enough, Jackie. Interviews are scheduled in little old Seattle.

"Due to the large number of applications for interviews, not all applicants will be granted an appointment. Applicants will be selected and notified via email with interview times and details until all appointments are filled. Although there is no fee charged for the audition itself, applicants are responsible for all expenses getting to and from the interviews."

This means that I registered on-line to be invited to an interview. Whee!



Posted By: of troy Re: Jeopardy (TM) - 09/17/04 07:44 PM
good luck last time i tried (and failed) the test had 50 questions, from the $400/$500 question (not the $100 easy ones!) if you've been watching, you'll recognize about 10% of the questions, (others are old, old, older...)

PS: look of a seat marked (on back or front with J, for jeopardy, or A for alex) --and sit there...not telling you why but do it!--there are often 2 or so per bulk auditions.

Posted By: Father Steve Re: Jeopardy (TM) - 09/17/04 10:36 PM
Dear Troy ~

Thanks for the benefit of your experience, but I think have to be "selected and notified" before I get to pick in which chair to park my ample behind.

I suspect that everyone who watches Jeopardy harbours the belief that one would do well on the show. I suspect that it is also harder than it looks. The timing of the pressing of the buzzer seems to have a lot to do with it. One is inspired, however, by the current champion's remarkable run. There was a great essay about it in a recent TIME Magazine: the conclusion was that he is not human but rather a sort of beta cyborg produced by a couple of bored engineers at nearby MicroSoft.


Posted By: Jackie Re: Jeopardy (TM) - 09/18/04 12:34 AM
I don't believe I would do well at all on Jeopardy (Wheel of Fortune, now that might be a different story). I can't think of things fast enough--or at all.
This one guy is having a remarkable run, isn't he? My houseguest last weekend was saying that somebody had leaked to MSN, I think, how far he got. We were saying also that we thought that simply being so much more familiar with the buzzers than his new nightly opponents are probably gives him an advantage. I heard once that they are programmed so that a fast reader can't buzz in ahead of the others.

My dear--I certainly hope you get an interview. Seeing you on there would be fantastic!!

Posted By: Father Steve A Solemn Undertaking - 09/18/04 01:00 AM
I hereby resolve that, if I am selected to appear on Jeopardy and I win, I will say something about how I owe it all to AWAD and further that, if I am selected and I lose, no mention of AWAD will pass my lips.


Posted By: gift horse Re: What a Goober! - 09/18/04 02:24 PM
Great link, musick! Though now the theme song is whistling in my brain. Dang!

BTW, Dr. Bill sent a very helpful link to me as well via PM:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=goober&r=f

I love some of those example sentences.
"The company of goobers is worse than no company at all."
Amen!

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