Grant Barrett said:
In this episode, a listener says his friend Harold like to do social phoning while driving, so he’s invented a term for mindless calling while in the car. And no, it’s not “car-pe diem.”

Here are some more suggestions:
triplipflipping (my favorite, but it wouldn’t catch on),
motormouthing, roadphoning, car-yakking, jawriding,
DWJ (”driving while jabbering”).

And here are two more, with apologies to Tom and Ray:
cartalking (talking while driving)
click-clacking (texting while driving)

RE: Bismarck
I’m surprised that neither of you noticed the problem that jelly doughnuts have no holes (at least, around here, they don’t) and therefore aren’t doughnuts !

Regards, with knowledge of bismarcks in Illinois, Steve

On the Bismark tip, it comes up during this audio clip, which investigates another sweet roll mystery the “Persian”:
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDCC-1-69-1371-14381/life_society/canadian_food/

I grew up in central Wisconsin in the 60’s and recall my mother (of German heritage) calling an icing and chopped nut covered roll a “Persian”.

She also called what is commonly known as a “Long John” a “Chicago”. I wonder if “Chicago” is tied somehow to Chicago politician “Long” John Wentworth — who had some interesting dining habits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wentworth_(mayor)

It is amazing how difficult it is to find a solid source for this bakery related info on the web. The loss of many small independant bakeries (”Hostessification”) probably plays a large “roll”.

I vote that doughnuts do not need to have holes to be called a doughnut (or a donut!). Do(ugh)nut holes are pretty popular with my kids, though - as in Entemann’s “Pop’ems”. Glazed is preferred.

Grant Barrett said:

Steve, who says doughnuts have to have holes? [snip]

Grant,
Well… Perhaps this is a regional thing, but I think it’s those guys who stand out in street intersections, around here, once a year passing out cardboard do(ugh)nuts [*with holes*] on do(ugh)nut day. You don’t see any of them without holes, do ya?
Also, there’s the Salvation Army, or was it the Red Cross who started the whole thing during WWI or was it WWII.
Then there’s the standard “the dictionary does not determine what is and is not correct; it is a reflection of usage” argument.
And then… And then… Why do(ugh)”nut” instead of do(ugh)”ring”, or do(ugh)torus, or something [ for the ones *with* holes, whatever you call them].
Besides, with the human propensity to name EVERYTHING [not to mention the whole (sic) purpose of your radio program], there absolutely has to be a name to differentiate between holed and holeless, no?
And, although we’re not supposed to begin a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’, since we have Bismarck, long John, Persian, Danish, Sweet Roll, and and a host, or is it hostest, of others, the holed seem to need (sic) a distinguished name of their own.
So, I’m thinkin’ do(gh)nut is j u s t right.

Regards, from the heartland, Steve
(;-)

P.S. I just remembered. I don’t recall hearing if anyone mentioned the self-contradicting twist “Away With Words”

I don’t recall hearing if anyone mentioned the self-contradicting twist “Away With Words”

Oh, yes, the redivision joke about the name of the show is an oldie. The one I haven’t seen is to redivide it as “Aw, Ay, With Words.”

Dear Martha and Grant,
As a former resident of Windom, Minnesota, I’d like to share with you that as a small child, the use of “gray duck” was usually used as a fake in a game of duck-duck-goose. You’d walk around the circle, calling out duck, duck, duck, and then g-g-g-g-gray duck, to make the other kids think that you were about to say g-g-g-g-g-goose. The “guh” sound was meant to rile the other kids, so they didn’t know what to expect.
Also, on the Bismarck/jelly doughnut discussion, we had another term for that item in Minnesota- a Bavarian Creme. I always associated a Bismarck and/or Bavarian Creme as being filled with custard creme, as opposed to jelly doughnuts, which contained jelly. Scandanavians know their dessert pastries. I was really disappointed recently when a ordered a Bismarck near my in-laws house on the Long Beach Peninsula of Washington, and it was filled with Jello pudding- bleh!

Thanks for the great podcast,
Brian Bartel

Brian, thanks for this addition to the duck-duck discussion. I’d not heard that one, and I have a feeling we may revisit this question on the air, so maybe we’ll mention it as well.

(And PLEASE tell me you’re kidding about the Jell-O doughnut!)

Dear Way:

Subj: Technology driven neologism.

Heard the bit Saturday about the need for a word to describe celyakking while driving.

How about another term for just plain inappropriate celyakking behavior: when someone feels compelled to invade the personal sound space of others in order to spew celludrivel into an electronic ego extension device, this could be called cellurudeness.

Then there is the inane practice of filling one’s moments of solitude with trivial yak to avoid any feeling of actually being; cellutherapy might do.

Back to the point; driving while in any way distracted is highly risky behavior, one might call it cellurisky if it involves the cell phone.

I suggest that celyakking, cellurude, cellurisk, celludrivel, and cellutherapy might be useful additions to our gargantuan and ever-growing language. After all, we are comfortable with gozinta and blog, are we not?

Tom Haglund
Loreto, BCS, Mexico

On the topic of padiddles, the name of that other game isn’t Slug Bug, it’s Punch Buggy, at least in my car. Now, for a reverse padiddle, I’ve taken to using padassle, but not in front of my mother.

Oh. and another thing while I’m here…

My father had and Aunt Nancy who was from the mid-west. She married a California man and they ended up in Connecticut. She was very particular that her title sounded like the insect, not that strange local pronunciation the other folks nearby seemed to prefer. Besides, Ant Nancy has a much better rhyme to it.

Wow, we have a lot in common! My dad also had an Aunt Nancy. I agree, sounds good. The game is Punch Buggy in my background too, with a twist: you had to say the color of the Bug you saw, and there was often a “no punchbacks” to preclude retaliation. So “punchbuggyblacknopunchbacks!” without taking a breath is how it would sound.

Also I only knew the strip version of padiddle. You’d only play with a mixed gender group in the car. Whoever called padiddle caused everyone of the opposite gender removed an item. Racy!

Linda said:

On the topic of padiddles, the name of that other game isn’t Slug Bug, it’s Punch Buggy, at least in my car. Now, for a reverse padiddle, I’ve taken to using padassle, but not in front of my mother.

Oh. and another thing while I’m here…

My father had and Aunt Nancy who was from the mid-west. She married a California man and they ended up in Connecticut. She was very particular that her title sounded like the insect, not that strange local pronunciation the other folks nearby seemed to prefer. Besides, Ant Nancy has a much better rhyme to it.

I grew up in Philadelphia. I remember playing the “pidoodle” (although some said padiddle) game in the car. We also had a corresponding term for a burnt out taillight — “dinklepink.” As I recall, the rules for the dinklepink would vary depending upon local agreement. Sometimes it even counted the same — although it must always be declared with the proper term, or the claim would be null and void.