Terms Which Have Disappeared

[skydog757]

Don't forget, "let's dance" and "let's tango!"

Also "It's 'Go' time!"

 

[dh66]

Yep, popularized by Dodger announcer Red Barber, who called his autobiography "Rhubarb In The Catbird Seat," said "catbird seat" being a position of advantage -- another Barberism which was very popular in the Era but has since faded away.

Barber's surviving broadcasts are a gold mine of colorful language. I heard him describe one particular game as being "as tight as a new pair of shoes on a rainy day," and immediately mourned for all the thousands of games he broadcast over the years for which no recordings exist, and all the brilliant bits of language we'll never get to enjoy.

Around here, a rowdy fight is known as a "knock-down drag-out."

" the catbird seat" expression is an old southern term, frequently still heard down here. The grey catbird is a mimic, like the mockingbird, and always chooses the highest branches in the tree to perch and sing his song. Red Barber popularized the phrase to a wider audience back in the day.

 

[Bamaboots]

"The catbird seat", first heard it as a child in the 60's from my grandparents.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When Dodger pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto broke up Yankee Bill Bevens' no-hitter with a game-winning double in the 1947 World Series, Red Barber famously exclaimed "Well I'll be a suck-egg mule!" He himself was never able to give a reasonable explanation of what, exactly, a suck-egg mule is, but it perfectly fit the moment.

 

[Zombie_61]

When Dodger pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto broke up Yankee Bill Bevens' no-hitter with a game-winning double in the 1947 World Series, Red Barber famously exclaimed "Well I'll be a suck-egg mule!" He himself was never able to give a reasonable explanation of what, exactly, a suck-egg mule is, but it perfectly fit the moment.

Some things just shouldn't be questioned.

 

[HudsonHawk]

When Dodger pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto broke up Yankee Bill Bevens' no-hitter with a game-winning double in the 1947 World Series, Red Barber famously exclaimed "Well I'll be a suck-egg mule!" He himself was never able to give a reasonable explanation of what, exactly, a suck-egg mule is, but it perfectly fit the moment.

A "suck egg" or "egg sucking" mule/dog/scoundrel/varmint/what have you is another Southern expression referring to someone who can't be trusted, as in they'll sneak up and steal your eggs right out from under you. So "I'll be a suck egg mule" basically means "you won't believe this, but..."

 

[GHT]

Red Barber famously exclaimed "Well I'll be a suck-egg mule!" He himself was never able to give a reasonable explanation of what, exactly, a suck-egg mule is, but it perfectly fit the moment.

I remember you explaining to me the expression, a suck egg mule. I just couldn't crack that lyric when I first heard Glenn Miller's: "Doin' The Jive."
https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr...Lq4DA&gws_rd=ssl#q=doin+the+jive+glenn+miller

 

[MisterCairo]

I was floored recently when I heard someone say "Holy dido" (pronounced DIE-doh"). My father used that expression his whole life. He explained the origin to me when I was young, all I remember is that it was based on some kind of game he learned in the middle east, I think during the war (he also grew up in Baghdad before moving to England, but I think this was a war-time thing).

It involved, in part, "passing the holy dido" to your neighbour. It reminded me in ways later on of some kind of Masonic rite. That's all I can recall.

Has anyone, ever, heard of this before?

Oh, I couldn't ask the person I overheard saying it, I was leaving a plane and they were lost in the airport crowds.

Sean

 

[LizzieMaine]

It used to be a phrase to say "cutting a merry dido" to describe someone whooping it up or engaging in wacky antics. You don't hear that one anymore either.

Webster's Second defines "Dido" as a proper name from classical mythology, the queen and reported founder of Carthage. In Virgil's Aenied, Dido entertained Aeneas and his followers, fell in love with him and then killed herself, as mythological queens are wont to do, when he did not reciprocate. Possibly the meaning of "merry antics" has to do with the way in which Dido entertained her guests.

Someone given to cutting didoes was also known as a "merry andrew," for whatever that's worth.

 

[HudsonHawk]

It used to be a phrase to say "cutting a merry dido" to describe someone whooping it up or engaging in wacky antics. You don't hear that one anymore either.

Webster's Second defines "Dido" as a proper name from classical mythology, the queen and reported founder of Carthage. In Virgil's Aenied, Dido entertained Aeneas and his followers, fell in love with him and then killed herself, as mythological queens are wont to do, when he did not reciprocate. Possibly the meaning of "merry antics" has to do with the way in which Dido entertained her guests.

Someone given to cutting didoes was also known as a "merry andrew," for whatever that's worth.

My mother always used the phrase "cut a dido" when we were misbehaving. Dad used to say we were "making monkeyshines". I still use the latter all the time.

 

[JimWagner]

My grandmother (born in the 1880's) used to say "well I swanny". Or something like, "I swanny, that boy tries my patience."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Old time "down east" comedians of the Titus Moody style used to say "Wallll, I swan to puckah" when they were expressing amazement.

Another localism that I don't hear much around here anymore is the use of the possessive to refer to any store or place of business. Not only did we talk about "Woolworth's" or "Newberry's" instead of "F. W. Woolworth" or "J. J. Newberry," but we also went to "J. C. Penney's", "Sears and Roebuck's" and "Monkey Ward's." This later translated into things like the Zayre chain of discount department stores always being called "Zayre's," even though the company actively discouraged that form in its advertising, and the Ames chain of stores always being called "Ames's.""I'm goin' down here to Ames's and get a new pair of socks."

What killed this habit was the advent of Wal-Mart. There are still a very few backwoodsy holdouts who refer to "Wal-Mart's," but in general, the habit has disappeared, and in just the past twenty-five years or so.

 

[Haversack]

The use of the possessive to refer to a business is still in use here in Northern California. The differentiator appears to be if the business name is based on the name of a person it gets the possessive, e.g. Tadich's, Leopold's, Lang's, Goodwin-Cole's, etc. If the name is not so personalized it does not get the possessive, e.g. BevMo, Bi-Mart, Tower, etc.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ (to Lizzie two above, the other post snuck in while I was typing )"Monkey Ward's" was an absolute great nickname. Is there any origin story that you are aware of or is it just one of those things that sounded good so it stuck? Did the company like or hate it?

Another name style that has all but disappeared was the convention of long, strong, impressive names for banks and insurance companies like "The First National Bank of Boston," which was shortened twice - first to "Bank of Boston" and, then, in one of the more stupid moves in overthink, it was shortened further to "BankBoston." In the town I grew up in we had "The New Brunswick Savings and Loan Association" (or something very close - it's been a long time) which was shortened a few times and then bought by "Heritage Bank North" (which sounds like it was already shortened) which became just "Heritage Bank" before being bought. The theory was the old names sounded "Stodgy" and didn't appeal to the younger generation (in the '80s and '90s when the name shrinkage became popular).

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to bank with "Depositor's Trust Company" before it became KeyBank, and I liked the old name better. Less corporate, less gimmicky, and no idiosyncratic capital letters. But that's the same kind of reasoning that got rid of great old trademarks like the RCA meatball or the Flying Red Horse, and replaced them with focus-grouped graphics. Bah.

We only ever called it "Monkey Ward's," and I don't think I ever heard anyone, anywhere call it by its right, full name. The nickname goes way, way back, and as best as I've been able to find out, it was a phonetic corruption of "Montgomery," probably rising out of the Slavic neighborhoods around Chicago where the company was originally based. I do remember the company in the seventies going to great length to try and get people to call it "Wards" and drop the Montgomery/Monkey altogether, but I don't think it was particularly successful.

There've been periodic efforts to bring the brand/company back since it faded out, and they're missing the boat. They should go "full Monkey" and make a cartoon monkey their corporate mascot. Monkeywards dot com. Who doesn't love a monkey?

There's a Canadian discount auto parts/hardware chain called "Canadian Tire," which is universally known as "Crappy Tire" by every Canadian I've ever met. The company tried to embrace that and actually tried to claim the "crappytire.com" URL, but a court wouldn't allow it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The use of the possessive to refer to a business is still in use here in Northern California. The differentiator appears to be if the business name is based on the name of a person it gets the possessive, e.g. Tadich's, Leopold's, Lang's, Goodwin-Cole's, etc. If the name is not so personalized it does not get the possessive, e.g. BevMo, Bi-Mart, Tower, etc.

We always sort of assumed that Zayre's was called that because it was founded by a Mr. Zayre. Turns out that Zayre was merely a phonetic corruption of the Yiddish word "Zehr," as in the phrase "Zehr gut" for "Very good." Who knew?

 

[Haversack]

The substitution of Monkey for Montgomery goes way back in San Francisco. Montgomery Street, (once also known as Wall Street of the West), is still occasionally referred to as Monkey Street. The most famous use of this substitution in San Francisco's history is to the Monkey Block. Built in the 1850s, this four-story fireproof building was home at one time or other to most of the City's 19th C. literary Bohemia. Twain, Harte, Bierce, and London all had digs here. It was torn down in 1959 and the site is now where the Pyramid is.

 

[tonyb]

I still (rarely) hear professional sports teams called by the names of their cities, but in the plural, as in "the Green Bays beat the Chicagos."

Such usage is almost never encountered in the West. Perhaps it never was. It's Northeasterners who most often used it, per my wholly anecdotal observation.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That was a very common thing up this way -- the "Bostons" and the "Brooklyns" were common, but for some reason rarely the "New Yorks" or the "Philadelphias."

Another thing you rarely see anymore are fanciful nicknames for teams used in headlines. These were coined as a matter of necessity when making up a page -- the lines had to be a precise length to fit the layout, and it was less easy to do this with hot metal printing than with computer layout. So you had things like "Hose Nip Solons," which when translated meant that the Red or White Sox had beaten the Senators. Or "Flock Tops Jints," which any New Yorker would know meant "Dodgers Beat Giants." (The "Flock" was a holdover from the days when the Dodgers were called the "Robins.")

Many other such names were used -- the Tigers were the "Bengals," the Braves and Indians were both the "Tribe," the Athletics were the "Mackmen" or the "Macks," the Reds might be the "Rhinelanders," the Pirates were occasionally the "Bucs" or "Corsairs," the Cardinals were the "Redbirds," and in the twenties, the Yankees were often on the back page of the News and the Mirror as the "Hugmen," after their manager Miller Huggins. Nobody ever calls them the "Girardimen" today.

 

[Zombie_61]

I still (rarely) hear professional sports teams called by the names of their cities, but in the plural, as in "the Green Bays beat the Chicagos."

Such usage is almost never encountered in the West. Perhaps it never was...

I've lived in southern California my entire life (so far), and it's been quite common to hear someone say, for example, "Green Bay beat Chicago last night," or "The Packers beat the Bears last night," during a conversation about the previous day's/night's sports event. But I've never heard it phrased as "The Chicagos beat the Dallas' last night," so you're probably right.