Where do we get the phrase be there or be square?

Not sure about this exact phrase but I heard that "square" comes from the 18th century when the style of shoe went, rather suddenly, from the square-toed single last style to the pointed-toe style made with right and left feet. Those who refused to change (or could not afford to) were unfashionable "Squares".

Grant Barrett said:

Martha shares a puzzle sent in by a listener: "What's the longest word typed on the left hand's half of the keyboard?" Hint: It's the plural of a now-outmoded occupational term.

I used to work with a woman named Barbara Stewart. She made a big show out of taking her right hand completely off the keyboard before typing her full name.

For the other hand, I once constructed a fanciful "right-hand shopping list" of items such as hippo milk, onion pulp, pumpkin hull oil. That, and the sentence on opium poppy, in my opinion, you'll unpin my pink nylon kimono.

Grant argues that new commercial categories of literature, which include poop fiction, chick lit, K-mart realism, and tart noir resemble the kind of fracturing that already occurred in the music world. .

They left out "housewife porn", aka "bodice-rippers".

What exactly do you mean when you use the words couple, few, and several? Do they conjure specific numbers? The hosts disagree.

When I was about nine years old, I asked someone exactly what the phrase "room temperature" meant and was told "72 degrees Fahrenheit". Ever since, I've been unable to associate the term with any other number.

Grant Barrett said:

A lagniappe is a little something extra that a merchant might toss in for a customer, like a complimentary ball-point pen. What's the origin of that word?

Grant mentioned this word originated from Quechua. In Chile we use the word "yapa" with pretty much exactly the same meaning: a little something extra you give the customer. I wonder if it comes from the same root.

Elysia said:

Regarding the pools of light on water caused by sunbeams through cloud cover. I don't know the word the caller was looking for, but "sunglade" seems the most reasonable and poetic. If it isn't a word, it should be. I also wanted to share a word that I first heard in a photography class for the sunbeams themselves in this situation – "God light" – though the beams don't have to be shining on water for it to apply. Used in a sentence – "Nice God light you captured in that photo of the mountain!"

The sunbeams themselves are called "crepuscular rays," and I'm somewhat surprised that there isn't a form of crepuscular which has been adopted for what goes on when the rays meet land or water…

Last summer I had the delightful experience of performing in a musical comedy, First Friday, by local (Homer, AK) playwright and artist Shirley Timmreck, who celebrates her ninetieth birthday this month. The play is one of several that she has written based on her memories of growing up in New Orleans in the 1920s and 1930s. One of the characters repeatedly annoys her friends by parting from them with a hearty "Abyssinia!"

Peter Norton
Homer, Alaska

I find myself using "stupidest" in all seriousness (as in, the stupidest thing I've ever heard), but would not use stupider unless I were being deliberately silly, I think.

I was hoping the Ethiopia! phrase might've been another parting phrase, but couldn't come up with anything. We'll think over ya? Similarly, my family uses numerous replacement phrases for common words, like "horse pistol" for hospital, I'm "tortoised" (tiredest), but also several (meaning more than 6) vegetable-related re-phrasings, like "not necess-celery" (to which might be replied, "yes, necess-celery") and "corn-prende?" …

For many years, we have been calling the television remote control "the pickle". We picked up the phrase from another couple… upon hearing the term, it was so silly and fun to say that we just had to adopt it. I always thought that it must have come from being the device to "pick" the channel, or from its shape. I'm delighted to hear that the term must derive from the big red ON/OFF button's resemblance to a bomb-deployer! Come to think of it, some of the shows I have picked have been bombs.

leahbrooks said:

For many years, we have been calling the television remote control "the pickle". We picked up the phrase from another couple… upon hearing the term, it was so silly and fun to say that we just had to adopt it. I always thought that it must have come from being the device to "pick" the channel, or from its shape. I'm delighted to hear that the term must derive from the big red ON/OFF button's resemblance to a bomb-deployer! Come to think of it, some of the shows I have picked have been bombs.

When I was six years old, my Dutch grandmother taught me to knit. She called the little several-inch-long piece of yarn at the very beginning of the project "the pickle." I've always wondered where that came from. I've thought maybe she called it that because it looked like the little leftover vine sometimes hanging on a dill pickle. Has anyone else ever heard it in connection with knitting?

gacdg said:

Grant Barrett said:

A lagniappe is a little something extra that a merchant might toss in for a customer, like a complimentary ball-point pen. What's the origin of that word?

Grant mentioned this word originated from Quechua. In Chile we use the word "yapa" with pretty much exactly the same meaning: a little something extra you give the customer. I wonder if it comes from the same root.

I spent almost two years in Bolivia and learned the Cochabamba dialect of Quechua. Indeed, a "yapa" is something extra, and it does not need to be of the same thing. When we went to the market to buy, say, carrots, we would say, "Yapawayku aaaaaah" which means c'mon give us a yapa," from the verb "yapay." The seller may then toss a small head of lettuc into the bag. I was floored that "lagniappe" comes from that.