This is the first time i've ever done this so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.

I'm commenting on the X Y and Zed segment.

As a Canadian, I grew up with a cultural inferiority complex being utterly overwhelmed by the amount of US media flowing into Canada. We had a few sources of pride – hockey, Lorne Greene and good manners – but not much more. So I resorted to noble attempts to resist what I saw as US cultural imperialism. I'm older now and more easy-going, but your segment reminded me of how I've deeply internalized those areas of resistance.

Even now, pronouncing the last letter as 'Zee' and removing the 'u' in words like 'colour' evokes my private battle to maintain proper English in the face of the 'dumbing down' of the language by the big oafs to the South. Even though that meant calling it 'EEE-ZED Off Oven Cleaner'! I'm actually impressed that 'Zee' goes back to Noah Webster – I had always thought it was a marketing invention.

While I'm on the subject, I still bristle at the use of the term 'American' to describe citizens of the United States. Why did US'ers appropriate that word from other residents of the Americas like Venezuela, Honduras and Canada? That's why I dread Olympic years.

When I married my Brooklyn-born wife 18 years ago, she regarded all of my Canadian efforts as pathetic. And so, years of contempt had forced me into a more passive underground resistance. But your segment has reminded me that it's still there, eh?

Emmett,

Some languages, actually do use something similar to "United Staters," such as in Spanish, which has the adjective estadounidense, a word also used as a noun. I believe French has something similar.

Carl

I had lots of stream-of-consciousness (if not purely random) thoughts while listening to the podcast. I'll try to stick to one topic per post.

BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES
I did some snooping on the Web and found these comments that may give hints about the origin of the name.

1a. I read that during the depression people said they were so good one could eat them as a sandwich between bread and butter.
1b. My grandmother used to make raw B&B pickles. She prepared the brine and spices, put sliced cucumbers in the jars, poured the brine over the cucumbers, added fresh dill from her garden, then topped it with a bit of homemade bread. She placed the jars under her peach tree for a day or two to "process." She never said why she added the bread, but I suspect it had to do with the curing process.
(both from

2. …for what it's worth, My grandma always told me that bread and butter pickles were named that way because in the depression era, people would make sandwiches out of the pickle, bread, and butter and eat them that way.
(from

3. Legend has it that bread-and-butter pickles got their name during the Great Depression. The sweet, crunchy cukes were said to be a staple because they were cheap, shelf stable and could become a meal when sandwiched between bread and butter.
(from

By the way, you missed a good opportunity to tie in the music with the topic: Since you reached back to the '60s for a tune, you could have played "Bread and Butter" by the Newbeats. ()

More stream-of-consciousness (perhaps random) thoughts…

SPATULA – I looked up the word "spatula" online at dictionary.com and found an interesting history of the word:

spatula
1525, from L. spatula "broad piece, spatula," dim. of spatha "broad, flat tool or weapon," from Gk. spathe "broad blade" (see spade (1)). Erroneous form spattular is attested from 1607.
(Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper )

Let's hope the caller and her in-laws don't escalate their argument into a fight with weapons – spatulas, swords, kitchen knives, or otherwise!

I do agree that although several items could rightly be called "spatula," their communication would be facilitated by agreeing on a more specific name for each implement, so a request for a particular one would be clear and unambiguous.

OFTEN – I was a bit distracted when one of the callers pronounced the word "often" with the T ("off-ten" instead of "off-en"). How common is this, and is it generally considered acceptable or correct?

In response to an either/or question, you said both options were acceptable. I might have put it differently:

When I was a kid, my grandfather would tease us by looking at us straight in the eye and, in a very serious voice, ask, "So tell me, do you walk to school or carry your lunch?" We learned the best answer (especially to tease him back) was, "Yes." LOL

As I struggle to catch up with my podcast backlog, I've now managed to listen to this show, and I have one for John Chaneski's "Lost and Found" game. I was unfortunately unable to find a common possessive expression for my own name, but for my father's profession, I found a "helper".

(Additional hint: for Dad, "Draney" would be considered an "aptronym".)

Heck, when I went to school, Pluto was a planet, eggs were good for you, and nobody was ever going to be able to prove Fermat's theorem. Inviolate truth changes.

Hamilton Hamilton said:

Has anyone mentioned that the myth about "Port Out Starboard Home" may have come from the 60s kid's movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

If anyone's interested, lyrics here:

The movie may have popularized the claim, but you can easily find references to it much earlier. (Including the snippet , which may be from 1936 – though never certain with serials in Google Books.)

My Dad, who is indeed from Philadelphia, says "Big Mahoff" all the time – as does my Mother, who learned it from him. How fun to learn that its a regionalism! I think we also like it, as a family, because our name is Hoffman. The Big Mahoffmans.

Regarding the quiz question about whose "list" John found…

Grant & Martha, I liked your answers, "Craig's" and "Angie's." I was certain it was "Frahn's"…

ConstantIrritant said:

I hope the Texas listener gets into the habit of taking his blood pressure medicine when he goes grocery shopping. Not only do I see "15 items or less," but also "Ice tea" and "Can food." (I give up. Can it? Can it what?) {sigh} Thank goodness for Lotensin.

Last week I noticed, much to my dismay, that "ice tea" made it into the as an answer. I just checked and found that it has been used as an answer no fewer than six times, beginning in 2004. Eeurgh.

I've got a friend whose surname is "Mahon" .. any possibility that the name is a twist on this? It's pronounced near identically to Mahoff, but simply swapping "on" to "off".. perhaps a schoolyard-calibre taunt of turning someone's name into its own taunt, as to assault their very identity, like calling someone named "Stephanie" to "Ste-fanny" and the like.