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?
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.
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
No idea about origin, AnnaS, but I do remember my mom putting a heritage twist on it - we often said "Lutefisk and Lefse".
You Minnesotans are something else. If I tried to walk and say "Lutefisk and Lefse" at the same time, I'd trip and fall.
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."
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.
Dear AS: Word Detective has a long paragraph about "Bread and Butter"
http://www.word-detective.com/100297.html#breadandbutter
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!
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
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=2422The Only WO'N!
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...
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.
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.
The Only WO'N!
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Only WO'N!
We called this a noogie
Guess what we called it, Hyla? A frog!
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!
The Only WO'N!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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)
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
lusy
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.
I assume he always favors curries.
A cook named McMurray
Got a raise in a hurry
From his Hindu employer
By favoring curry.
-- Ogden Nash
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.
lusy! My darling lusy! Oh, welcome back, welcome back! HUG! KISS!!! You can't think how delighted I am to see you again, my lovely, loving lusy! [throwing my arms around you e]
Being your slave what should I do but tend
Upon the hours, and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend;
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world without end hour,
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour,
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are, how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love, that in your will,
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.
Shakespeare, sonnet LVII
<
I have no precious time at all to spend; Nor services to do, till you require.Thank you, Max, for your welcome. It's good to be back. And Jackie ... gosh, what can I say?!
A lovely thought, my dear, and I do believe I have been out-sonneted! Catch up with you again soon.
lusy
I do believe I have been out-sonneted! Nope, nary a bit. I'm still swooning over yours.
Catch up with you again soon.Oh boy, did you ever! [giggle]
Hot can be a matter of what you are used too!
Indeed! My friend Roshan, on his last visit here, brought me a bottle of an Indian orange hot sauce. I took a teeny-tiny bit and about blew the top of my head off.
I couldn't believe it when I saw him swallow a teaspoonful with hardly a blink!
I reciprocated by introducing him to fresh horseradish, a New England brand called "MR."
I ate a tablespoonful on a small piece of bread and while it did clear my head it was no big deal.
However, when Roshan had a tiny bit on a piece of bread he had the same reaction to horseradish that I had to his orange hot sauce!
Chacun a son gout or whatever!