An Old Timey Podcast - 104: This Episode Is The Bee's Knees

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

Bless you, dear listener! You could have spent your day surfing the net and in doing so, turned a blind eye to this episode, But instead, you’re sitting there, like the cat got your tongue, about to listen to a very special episode of an Old Timey Podcast!We predict that at the end of this episode, you’ll say I wish Kristin would have spilled the beans on other idioms and their origin stories! In fact, I’d pay through the nose to hear more of these delightful tales, but alas, she must have had a deadline to meet.Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Kristin pulled from: “The origins of 21 common phrases,” by Nicholas C. Rossis for StoryEmpire.com“7 everyday English idioms and where they come from,” by Kate Lohnes for Britannica“The real stories behind 7 everyday expressions,” by Megan Willett-Wei for Business Insider“Admiral Nelson’s defiance inspired the saying ‘to turn a blind eye,” by Cecilia Bogaard for AncientOrigins.net“Central New York woman becomes a ‘Final Jeopardy!’ answer,” by Geoff Herbert for The Post-Standard“Internet group honors pioneering CNY librarian,” by Marnie Eisenstadt for The Post-Standard“The curious – and creepy – origins of ‘cat got  your tongue?’” for History.com“A reporter said ‘screw the pooch’ on Face The Nation. Where does that phrase come from?” by Ben Zimmer for Slate.com“Buried Alive: Inside the 19th century panic over premature burial,” by Christopher Klein for History.com “I just learned why we say ‘spill the beans’ and I would never have guessed,” by Amy Glover for Huffpost“Why pay through the nose?” by Anatoly Liberman for OUPblog“It’s the bee’s knees; or, the entomology and etymology of ‘the bee’s knees’,” by Mike Cassidy for The Marietta Traveler“This legendary bartender served Hemingway and aided the resistance against the nazis,” by Alexis Ferenczi for Vice.com“Why do we say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes?” by Barbara Mikkelson for Snopes.comAre you enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Then please leave us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts!Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.

Hear ye, hear ye. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Kristen Caruso. And I'm Normie C. And on this episode, we'll be talking about the origin stories behind old-timey phrases. Oh, this will be fun. Yes, indeed, it will. Yeah, there's a lot of weird old-timey phrases. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Some of the stories are horrible. Oh, no.

But Norm, Norm, before I get into that, Are you going to entice the people? Yes. Let me take my shirt off. Oh, okay. No. Actually, folks, if you enjoy this small, sexy, independent podcast, please consider supporting us at patreon.com slash old-timey podcast because without your contributions, we would cease to exist.

We would crumble into dust. How. Head on over there. Patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. For $5 a month, you get access to our entire back catalog of best. bonus episodes. Plus, you get access to our Discord chat. And if you're feeling a little savory, how about you subscribe at the $10

level? That's the pig butter investor level. You get ad-free video episodes, trivia, 10% off merch. Kristen, why are you looking at me like that? This is so, everyone, so much has been cut. No, nothing's been cut. You're taking so long to get through it. Also, 10% off merch, we're not selling merch right now.

It's coming, I promise. Anyway, patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. Thank you very much for your support. But you know what else supports us, Kristen? Ads. Eds. And here's one right now. Doodoo.

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Norm, at some point we might have to release the unedited version of your Patreon plug. It was like you were swimming through pig butter trying to get through that. You were like, ah, and we have this, and we have that. It's possible I was a little underprepared to give a Patreon plug. Norm. How is that possible? But as they say in the Hollywood film industry, we'll fix it in post. Great.

Apparently, I can't do that, though, because Kristen's calling me out. It's like if they showed a Marvel movie and someone just walked on screen during a fight scene and they're like, yeah, that special effect is wrong. I'm just going to point it out to you right here. Well, sorry to hurt your feelings, Norm. And now it is time to get started. Bless you, dear listener. You could have spent your day surfing the net. And in doing so, turning a blind eye to this episode.

But instead, you're sitting there like the cat got your tongue listening to a very special episode of an old-timey podcast. Wow. And I predict that at the end of this episode, you'll say, Wow, that was the bee's knees. Kristen definitely didn't screw the pooch when she wrote that script. And, golly, I wish she would have spilled the beans on other idioms and sayings. In fact, I'd pay through the nose to hear more of those delightful tales. But alas, she must have had a deadline to meet.

Or maybe a very special episode of Saved by the Bell to watch. And in that sense, ding, ding, we're all saved by the bell, because that bell signifies the end of this delightful intro into today's episode on the origins of old-timey phrases. That was the most ADHD-fueled introduction I have ever heard on this podcast. Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome. Okay. It went everywhere.

Saved by the bell made an appearance for some reason. I thought it was very, well, because that is an idiom and it's also a TV show. I thought it was really cute how I did it. Is saved by the bell, an idiom? I'm starting to think you're an idiot. Thank you. Okay, now here's the deal for this episode. We'll take a look at all of the idioms and sayings I just mentioned,

and we're going to make a little game out of it. Oh, okay. So an idiom, by definition, is a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be understood from the literal definition of its words. It's like cat got your tongue. Exactly. So I'm going to say an idiom, and Normie, see, I'm going to ask you what you think it means. Okay.

And once we have the definition nailed down, I'm going to ask you to make an educated guess about the origin story. And then I'll hit you with the real story. All right. Okay. Are you prepared? I'm ready. Okay. We're starting off strong with the idiom.

Turn a blind eye. Norm, what do you think it means to turn a blind eye? Ooh. If you turn a blind eye to something, that means you purposefully don't look at it. or ignore it? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it means to consciously overlook, ignore, or pretend not to have seen something,

to willfully ignore information. Now, what do you think the story is behind this idiom? Hmm. Turn a blind eye. Yeah. Hmm. Is it some old, like, monk who couldn't see? Oh, okay.

And so he is, like, being, he, like, but he, like, hears something that, like, he, like, he shouldn't be hearing, but he ignores it. So he's turning his blind eye away in the chapel or whatever. Uh-huh. You know what? You start off strong and then it just got weirder and weirder. Here's the actual story. Most people agree that the idiom to turn a blind eye comes from famed British Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Perhaps you've heard. Admiral Nelson? Yes. Yes, that is the discount liquor brand. Uh-huh. If you can't afford Captain Morgan, you get Admiral Nelson. And I'm starting to think we should have respected Admiral Nelson a little more, because he did a lot of stuff. Horatio Nelson was legendary during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Brits loved him for his victories in the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of Trafalgar. But he hadn't escaped the battlefields unscathed, Norman. By the time this story took place, Horatio Nelson was blind in one eye because, in some previous battle he got a hunk of something. A hunk of something? You know, a chunk of debris flew in there. It's not good. Some, some hard tack.

And in 1801, he found himself at the Battle of Copenhagen. It was a big, wet, navy fight, splish, splash. Well, I would assume all naval battles are wet to some degree. They take place in water. Norm, are you trying to make fun of my, of my war coverage here? Yeah, I am actually. People come to this podcast for my war coverage.

Really? They say, ooh, splish splash, he was taking a bath. I bet that's about a naval war, and they're right. I don't think we've actually covered any wars, except maybe the EMU war. I'm doing a great job of it right here right now. You're right. I totally understand the Napoleonic Wars. What was the Battle of Copenhagen?

Who was that between, Kristen? Probably the Brits and the Dutch. The Dutch? I don't know about that Listen the important thing is It was a very wet battle Okay everybody needed their swim shoes And some zinc on their sniffers, all right?

Uh-huh yeah And the important thing you need to know Is that Admiral Horatio Nelson God, you're such a Was in charge of his big old boat And his boss A big boat Yes

Some people call those ships Some do Okay. It wasn't a yacht because this was for big tough boys. Anyhow. His boss was Admiral Sir Hyde Parker. Ooh. And Hyde Parker was in charge of the entire British fleet.

Okay. So that's how we know that the British were definitely involved. Okay. Yeah. Well, definitely. Apparently they were fighting the Dutch. I am starting to think. No, it was the Danish they were fighting.

Excuse me. I had this here in my notes. You're such a tur. Anyway, Sir Hyde Parker was the boss, applesauce, but Horatio Nelson didn't respect him much. He thought that Sir Hyde Parker was overly cautious. And sure enough, after a few hours of battling the Danish, not battling fun pastries, I'm sorry to say. Sir Hyde Parker signaled to Horatio Nelson, hey, you got to retreat. He communicated that message through flags.

Retreat, retreat, back up. Really? The Lord Admiral was. waving the flags. Retreat. Well, I'm sure he had a buddy. A buddy? I think he had a little ship boy doing it.

But Horatio Nelson didn't want to retreat. He was a big Navy boy. He wanted to get wetter than ever. And he was certain that if he and his men just kept attacking, they'd eventually win the battle against those cheese and fruit Danish. This is incredible. The history I'm learning right now. But he couldn't just outright ignore what his boss Sir Hyde Parker was signaling.

Sir Hyde Parker had worked so hard on the flag steps, you know? Yeah. So Horatio Nelson made a big show out of pulling out a telescope, putting it up to his eye, the blind one, and just not seeing the signal. And as legend has it, he lowered the telescope from his blind eye and turned to a fellow officer and said quite cheekily, I have only one eye and I have a right to be blind sometimes.

I really do not see the signal. Really? And so, he continued fighting. And as a result, the Brits won the battle. And afterward, when everyone found out that the only reason they won was because Horatio Nelson had ignored Sir Hyde Parker's orders, People were like, hold on a second. Does Hyde Parker kind of suck?

Maybe he does. And pretty soon, he lost his position and guess who took over? Admiral Horatio Nelson. And just like that, we all learned a valuable lesson, which is that sometimes it pays to ignore dumb shit. Wow. Okay, I want to look this up. No, Norman.

Norman, stop it right now. What? Norman, look up at me. First of all, are you new to podcasting? so rude. I'm telling you a story. Don't be Googling anything. Okay. You're looking at your computer. You're acting like, look at my eyes. You sassy little thing. It's a great story, isn't it, Norm? That is a great story. I don't believe a word of it. No, it's definitely not true. Which, if you had just waited for me to get to that, I would tell you instead of you like, I better Google this right now.

No, no, I wasn't Googling the idiom. He absolutely was. I wasn't Googling the idiom. I was Googling. I was Googling. I was Googling the Battle of Copenhagen. No. He was Googling. No. Single cougars near me. It is not true. The true story behind this idiom has actually been lost to time.

But personally, I enjoy the sassy tale of Horatio Nelson so much that I have decided to turn a blind eye to the fact that the idiom turning a blind eye appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary as early as 1698. Wow. That's way before the Battle of Copenhagen. That's right. So it really could be about a blind monk who was hearing naughty stuff and chose to ignore it. It really could be, Norm. I think that's the real story. Source, just a feeling.

How dare you Google the Battle of Copenhagen? Why can't I Google the Battle of Copenhagen? After I did such a good job describing it to you. You know, knowing that that entire story was basically made up, I think you did an awesome job. Made up. The whole turning the blind eye thing where he's like, I'm going to look in my telescope. And then he turns to his buddy.

He's like, by the way, I only have one eye. And I'm using the bad one. I think there's a world where maybe he did some cutesy little sassy thing in the moment. Sure. That's probably how he got to become a famous liquor brand. That's right. Okay, you ready for the next one? Yes.

This one is. is surfing the net Surfing the net Norm, what's it mean to surf the net? To like go to different websites on the internet. That's right. With no real like direction.

You're just kind of. Yeah, you're just browsing the internet. Norm couldn't even do the definition without pretending he was surfing in his chair, everybody. That's right. Surf's up. Let's hit up the interwebs. What do you think the story is behind that phrase?

Surfing the net? Yeah. Hmm. It starts with a monk, as these things often do. No, because it's about the internet. And the monk was a terrible surfer. Wait a minute. Was there like some company called SurfNet?

And when you signed up for an internet subscription, you were officially surf in the net? That's right. For real? No. Here's the story. Okay, picture it. One, the Liverpool Public Library in Liverpool, New York. Ooh, you threw me for a loop there.

I was assuming Liverpool, England. Nope. Admiral Nelson had his time to shine. Now we're moving back to the U.S. of A. U.S. of A, all right. Assistant librarian Gene Polly had led the charge to get a computer in the library. That was highly unusual in 1981. Ooh, yeah.

Yeah, so it would be like an Atari 400 or something. My God, nerd alert. It was an Apple 2 plus, actually. Apple 2, classic. That makes a lot of sense, actually. It would be an Apple 2. Thank you, sir. Mm-hmm.

So at the time, the Liverpool Public Library was one of only two libraries in the entire country that had its own computer. And the best part was, anyone could use it. Everyone, Norm's making faces at me. One of only two libraries in the entire country that had a computer. Yeah. Hmm. I'm going to question that. Okay.

I'm making a note. All right, that's fine. It was in multiple newspaper articles. It could be wrong. But it was rare. Can we agree that it was rare? Sure. Well, you've really got your skeptical pants on this episode.

I can tell. Yeah. I'm going to lower my glasses. All right. Make sure that there's skeptical bell bottoms, okay? Mm-hmm. Because, you know, this episode started out navy wet. You want to be able to throw these things off in case you fall overboard.

How about some clam diggers? Oh, cute. Yes. Also that. So Gene Polly was pumped about that gigantic Apple 2 Plus. But a lot of her fellow librarians weren't so impressed. They were worried about the library expanding beyond traditional media. They told her that the computer wasn't part of their core mission. Their mission was books, literacy, not computers.

But Gene disagreed. She correctly saw that computers were the future, and people would need to understand them and be comfortable using them. And be able to masturbate in public. That's right. It's very important to be able to masturbate in a public library. Yeah. Where else are you going to do it? Folks, we've seen some things. I was a witness to it one time.

I think everyone who has ever been to a public library has been a witness to someone masturbating at the computer. I think it's pretty common. I think all librarians should have a hose. Just to spray the person. Yes, yes. And it should just like go off automatically. Automatically. How would it detect if you're masturbating?

Would it have a thermal camera? It's done off sound and the clinking of the belt buckle. It's just automatically. Wow. Yeah. I feel like there'd be a lot of false alarms with that. We're just testing it. I was undoing my backpack.

So Gene decided to write a book that would essentially be a how-to book on navigating the World Wide Web. She gave it an unusual title. She called it Surfing the Internet, an introduction. Oh. And, you know, maybe that title was eye-catching. Maybe it caught people's attention in kind of a playful, disarming way. Suddenly, the World Wide Web didn't seem so scary. Either way, that phrase, surfing the Internet.

net took the world by storm. That was a big surprise for Gene Polly. She later told her local newspaper that she came up with the phrase surfing the net after she saw a picture of a surfer, a wave, and the phrase information surfing on a mouse pad. That sounds like a cool mouse pad. It sounds amazing. Remember when mouse pads were cool? You could get all kinds of fun stuff put on them.

Kristen, the world of cool mouse pads has. has gotten even bigger. Really? Yes. You can literally get whatever you want on a mouse pad now. You can get big, big titty anime girls as like a wrist rest, you know. Oh, okay. Yeah, there's so many different mouse pads.

Some things I don't need to know. See, you open a can of worms. See, why not? Just like cookie monster. And he's got two big cookies and that's what you rest your wrist on. I mean, you could definitely make that happen. Yeah, yeah. So she saw that mouse pad, which had no tits on it.

And yet, nonetheless, she thought to herself, this is perfect. Navigating the World Wide Web is hard. It requires skill. And you never know if there are going to be sharks. So she'd used that title for her book, and not long after it took off. And pretty soon, poor Jean got some hate from surfers who didn't like their cool, tough sport being associated with all of us weird internet people. She got a hate mail? Yeah, people didn't like it.

That's ridiculous. I agree. It got to the point that one time when Jean was at a conference in Hawaii, she went to a statue of Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing, and she apologized to his statue. In the years since then, Jean has written more books about the internet.

She even gave herself the nickname Netmom. Netmom. When she wrote the book, and I'm sure you have a copy of it. NetMoms Internet Kids and Family Yellow Pages. What is that title? It's a page turner.

It sounds like. NetMom Internet and Kids Yellow Pages? Uh-huh. Kids and family yellow pages. Do you remember when like there was a thought that we needed the yellow pages for the Internet? Do you not remember this time? Vaguely. Well.

Was it just a list of websites? Just a list of websites. This is NetMom we're talking about. This must have been pre-search engines. Yeah, I think so. I think it was pretty early days. And frankly, I don't think you're being super respectful. By the way, if you're wondering,

hey, before we wrap up this section on surfing the net, does Gene Polly, by any chance, have a personalized license plate that says NetMom? Yes, yes, she does. Oh, Gene. What? Gene, I feel like that that might be a word where the meaning's a little different, you know. What? What does NetMom mean to you, Norman?

I don't know. Big Titty animated librarians? You sit and freak? Well, I'm thinking, like, you know, the word daddy has changed a little bit, you know, like, internet daddy, internet mommy. I don't know. I don't know. I feel like it has like a sexual connotation now. Well, just go to Gene's only fans and let her know that it's been.

It's been the times they are changing. My username is NetMum. Oh, no. They say it's inappropriate. I'll change it to Nut Mom. That way no one gets upset. Gene sells mouse pads with her. What?

What, Norman? Nope. What do you want to say? No, I'm not going to say it. Wow. Okay. All right. So I believe that one.

I think that's true. I didn't realize you were going to be so... I thought that was part of the game where, like, I have to guess if it's actually true or not. Uh-huh, uh-huh, and then you try to sneak off and Google stuff. No. Uh-huh. I was just Googling big-titty anime girls. Okay, next one.

Cat got your tongue. Oh, yeah. What's it mean? Cat got your tongue means you are withholding from speaking. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a playful way to ask somebody why they're suddenly so quiet. Yeah.

Now, what do you think the story is behind this idiom, Norm? Hmm. Meow. So I'm going to guess that we don't know the actual origin of this phrase. My God, you're like going on prices right and betting a dollar. Okay. But hang on. Uh-huh.

I'm going to say a famous cat from vaudeville did a trick. Uh-huh. where he latched on to a big fake tongue coming out of like a stuffed cow. Uh-huh. And they're like, it's the amazing, um, cool cat. And that was his, that was his trick. Okay. Now, could you be more specific?

In what way? It was from the 1910s. What was the color of the cow? Okay. White with brown spots. You got it. The cat was a big, fat orange cat. Uh-huh.

Of course it was. We all knew it was. All right. There are a couple of different theories on how this idiom came about. And just a warning, it's kind of ironic that Cat Got Your Tongue is considered a fun, playful idiom. When the theories about where this idiom came from are all absolutely awful. You took a real fun place with the vaudeville norm. I'm going to go in the opposite direction. Oh, no. Okay, we'll start with the most popular one. It goes like this.

And we're back to the British Royal Navy, by the way. Jesus. Beginning in the 1700s, the British Royal Navy began disciplining sailors using a horrifying whip. Cat tongues! It was called the Cat of nine tails. Yes. Yes. It was on the terror.

Why do you seem so excited about it? Because I see the connection. I know what it looks like. I've seen it used before. It's disgusting. It hurts. It was essentially a handle with nine thin pieces of cord coming out of it. The ends of the cord were either nodded at the end or.

or dipped in metal. Yeah. The Navy used the cat of nine tails to flog unruly sailors. The punishment was usually given in public, in front of everybody. Yeah. It was incredibly painful and traumatizing. In front of the whole crew. Yeah.

And they usually declared like why he was being punished and how many lashes he would get. Oh yeah, it was meant to terrify everybody. Right. At the end of the beating, the victim was usually too shaken and traumatized to speak. And so it's believed that the phrase, cat got your tongue, comes from that awful period of silence after a person had been brutally,

publicly beaten by a cat in nine tails. Wow. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah? Yeah. What's the other origin, though? Okay. This other one is that in ancient Egypt,

people who were caught lying or stealing were sometimes punished by having their tongues chopped off and fed to cats. Oh! Which were like gods in Egypt, right? Yeah, so well, it's true that ancient Egyptians revered cats and hated liars, say in Mondays, there's really no evidence for this theory. The Cat of Nine Tales explanation is by far the most popular theory.

That makes more sense to me. But an anthropologist recently came up with a new theory. Bob Bill Cat? No. You are the one who came up with that, my darling, and you're really going places with it. So although this one is a thousand times more boring than someone getting beaten into silence or watching a cat gnaw on a human tongue, I think this theory is the right one. Here it goes. The phrase cat got your tongue first appeared in an 1881 magazine.

The line was, has the cat got your tongue, as the children say? Oh, so it was like an old-timey kid's phrase like skibbitty and six-seven? I think so. So it means that it was probably popular slang at the time. And this anthropologist said, quote, since cats are well known for swiping food from counters and floors, it makes sense that children might tease the shyer ones by asking, did the cat steal your tongue?

Meaning, is that why you're unable to speak? Ah, okay. And listeners, if you disagree with me, please cut off your tongue and feed it to Garfield because I don't want to hear about it. Oh, stuff it right in the lasagna. But seriously, I think that makes sense, right? Yeah, I mean, gosh, I remember Boo was notorious for knocking crap off my desk. Uh-huh.

The tongue right out your mouth, they say. Boo one time basically deleted an entire episode of The Gaming Historian. Yeah. When she walked across my keyboard. You were a devastated man. I was a broken man. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Okay, so it was like the skibbity of the 19th century. I think so. Yeah. I like that. I like the ship theory, though, too. The Cat and Nine Tales. I can see how it could come from that.

The Egypt one I'm not buying. No. Okay, next phrase. You ready? Yep. Screw the pooch. Just go. It's too graphic for me to describe where this phrase comes from.

Oh, wow. Okay. The meaning is mess up big time or fail completely. Yes. Do you want to take a guess at the origin story? I told you, it's too graphic. Okay, okay. I mean, I'm not, this is a serious podcast.

Yes, oh, right now it's starting serious. We don't talk about having sex with animals. That's just called beastiality. We don't call it having sex with animals. You know what kink I'm really into? Having sex with animals. Stop. If only there are a word to describe that.

Okay, quick warning. I mean, this whole episode, Did you say kink warning or quink warning? I said quick warning. Oh, what if we combine quick and kink, a quink warning? I mean, probably for someone, yeah. Okay, if you are offended by the term screw the pooch, you're really going to hate the original phrase, which was fuck the dog. Oh, no.

That was the original phrase. Okay, saying that someone fucked the dog apparently got popular during World War I when soldiers said it about other soldiers. who they felt were wasting time. Oh, like quit fucking the dog? Yes. I can't believe you're like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. I was like, are you kidding me? If I was just having a lazy Sunday and someone was like, you fuck the dog, I'd be like, what?

How dare you? You're just laying on the couch eating Cheetos? Would you quit fucking the dog? My God! Wow, that's hilarious. So it wasn't until World War II that soldiers revived the phrase, But by that point, they'd come up with the more modern meaning, meaning that someone had messed up, which I think makes way more sense. You screwed the pooch.

Well, no, they weren't saying screw the pooch yet. They were still saying fuck the dog. They were still saying fuck the dogs. But at some point, that obviously changed. In 1979, best-selling author Tom Wolfe published the book The Right Stuff. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, quit fucking the dog. Screw the pooch. It was nonfiction, and it was about the first group of astronauts accepted into NASA's Project Mercury program.

So the book was made into a movie in 1983, and in that movie, a young Dennis Quaid played a concerned astronaut, and he tells his fellow astronaut, played by Fred Ward, quote, just make sure you don't screw the pooch, Gus. So it was like they wanted to say fuck the dog, but it was like the G rated version for the movie. Maybe. So that is believed to be where the phrase screw the pooch became so popular. But it wasn't like the first time it was used, of course. So who first used it? Who was the brilliant person to take the phrase fuck the dog and make it slightly more palatable? Reveal yourself.

No, you don't want to say that because a lot of people want credit for this. But I tend to believe what a lot of other people tend to believe, which is that it doesn't take a genius to make the leap from fuck the dog to screw the pooch. And I'm guessing that in the aftermath of World War II, a lot of people made that leap independently. Yeah. Which in a way is one small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind. Wow. Yeah.

You know, I wrote a country song about screwing the pooch. Yeah, Norm likes to make fun of country songs because in his mind, they all sound the same, and they're all about the same stuff. Specifically, pop country. Yes. And Norm's hit single that he refuses to release is, I think I want to fuck my dog. That's right. Derr-deer. It's about a guy who's just got dumped.

It's at a hard day's work at the construction site or wherever comes home to his- You really haven't fleshed out his character much. Comes home to his double-wide and cracks open a cold one. Uh-huh. And he's lonely. Sure. And he looks over and there's his dog sitting on the love seat. This is terrible.

Well, hang on. This is absolutely terrible. It's parody song, number one. Uh-huh. And two, I don't say that he actually fucks the dog. Wow. He's thinking about it. That's wonderful, Norm.

He's thinking about it. That's all. You know, in the beginning of this episode, you threatened people and said, oh, if you don't join our Patreon, we'll cease to exist. They're going to hear all this crap and be like, these people should stop. Norm should crumble the dust. First he's wanting to spank people. Uh-huh.

Now he's talking about his hit country song about screwing the pooch. Yep. Okay, well, that's interesting. You know, that does seem like a soldier phrase. Yeah. Fucking the dog. Screwing the pooch. Yeah.

And they made it a little bit nicer when they took it home with him. Yeah. Like Fubar. Fubar is a soldier phrase. Fugged up beyond all recognition, right? Okay. Ready for the next one? Yes.

Saved by the bell. It's all right because I'm saved by the bird. What's it mean, Norm? Ooh, saved by the bell. You don't know? Oh, oh, wait a minute. That's like a boxing thing, isn't it? Norm, right now I'm asking you, what's it mean?

Don't jump ahead. It means like a timer gets you out of a sticky situation. Yeah, you've been rescued at the last possible second. Now that is you can literally understand from the words. Yeah, that's true. Saved by the bell. You hear a lot in like, M. M.M.A. or boxing, like when the round ends.

Yeah. So that's your theory on the origin story. Yeah, like someone's getting their ass pounded and the bell goes off and they get to go back to their corner. Okay. Norm, this is an example of a tragic tale, tragic, where the actual meaning is very boring. And good people have come along and invented a history for this idiom that is way more interesting than the real story. but I will start with the real story because I'm a bad news first kind of gal. Okay, the real story behind the idiom,

saved by the bell, is, you're right. It comes from the late 1800s, specifically from the world of boxing. Saved by the bell, applied to any boxer who was just about to be defeated. And all they were saved by the bell when the bell rang is the end of that round,

which, you know, makes sense. But, hey, wake up. Because I'm going to tell you the way more interesting origin story that the internet has invented about the saying saved by the bell. Are you ready? I think the real version is interesting. It's from sports.

Exactly. It's like, you know what it's like? What's it like? It's like if you kicked ass at something, you knocked it out of the park. From baseball. Yeah. And so, yeah, this is from boxing. Yeah, I think it's interesting.

I understand where it's from. But I'm telling you, the internet has come up with something. Much, much, much more interesting. That's weird because the Internet usually doesn't have made up stuff on it. It's all real. I know when you surf the net, you only find real stuff. Okay. What does the Internet say it's from?

Okay. It starts with something real and terrifying. Premature burial. Premature burial. Oh, so you bury someone before they're actually dead? Dead, yes. Okay, that's, I've heard of this. Mm-hmm.

It's very scary and freaky. Yes. It is. What does it have to do with Save By the Bell? Well, I'm about to tell you, big boy. All right. Okay. Don't call me Big Boy.

I prefer a chunky youngster. We all do. Okay, it is true that in the 1800s, people were scared shitless about being buried alive. This was a very common fear. Really? Yes. Tales of being buried alive. were in a ton of popular fiction.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote about it too much, I say. And there were stories in newspapers about people who'd been buried alive and lived to tell the tale or who's scratched up coffins told the tale for them. I mean, freaky, scary stuff. Yeah.

In fact, in 1895, a guy named Reverend J. G. Oseley, who I hope to God was full of shit, published a study that claimed that at least 2,700 people were buried alive in England every year. And a few decades earlier, a man wrote a book titled The Danger of Premature Barials, and in it he argued that in France, four people every day were being buried alive. Four?

Every day. This all seems like way too much. Yeah, the data seems a little off here. So those figures and the fears at the time were definitely overblown, but they came from a real place. This was before modern medicine. People didn't always know how to spot signs of life. Someone who fell into a coma or had hypothermia might really seem dead. People were worried about being buried alive or burying a loved one too soon.

And so they began to wait until bodies decayed before they buried them. George Washington's like famous last words were wait three days to bury me. Really? Yes. This was a very common fear. Okay. Yeah. So he wanted to make sure he was actually dead.

No, he just wanted to hang out. Just let me chill. So yeah. In some places, they would let you decay to make extra super sure. But that really wasn't possible in the time of cholera. You know, because there was this understandable rush to bury dead people as quickly as possible because they were fearing the bad air and all that stuff. Yeah, because the dead bodies give off the stinking.

fumes and that's what causes cholera. So amidst all that fear, people got a little entrepreneurial. People began inventing so-called safety coffins. Safety coffins. The most famous one was one that included a cord that was tied to the dead or maybe a live person. I have seen this. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. And yeah, there's a bell above ground. and you can ring it if you're actually alive. Yeah, so by moving around, you're moving that bell, and then, you know, no worries. They'll dig you right up. Okay. I have read that before.

So that's made up. No, that was a real invention. Oh, really? People were really afraid of this stuff. Some of these inventions were absolutely stupid. One was like a coffin that you could open up from the inside, but it's like once someone's buried, what are you going to do? Right. Open the latch and dirt just won't even buries you some more.

Okay, for real. I have an intense fear of this. Well, tell you what, Kristen. We will hook up a cord to your coffin with a little Bluetooth speaker or MP3 player above ground. And it'll play whatever song you want to let people know you are alive. The bitch is back. The bitch is back. There we go.

No, when I was, gosh, this was probably like 1995. I was staying over at my grandparents' house and my grandmother was watching a made-for-tiv-movie. And in that made-for-tTV movie, a man was buried alive. And the whole time I was fascinated and horrified. And I kept thinking, oh, my God, at some point she's going to realize I am in this basement with her and say, oh, Kristen shouldn't be watching this.

Little did I know. My grandma didn't give a shit about that. That was something my boring parents did all the time. Right. I missed a lot of good Dateline episodes. And ever since then, ever since seeing that freaking made-for-TV movie, I have been freaked out by this and fascinated by this. There's a great movie. It's a thriller with, I think, Ryan Reynolds, and he's buried alive.

The whole movie takes place in a coffin. I know. You've seen, we watched it together, I think. Yes, and you laughed really hard because I said at the end, that was action-packed. I was like, it was literally, the whole movie was in the coffin. But it was action-packed. I can't remember the name of that movie, but it was really good. It was called Trapped.

It may have been called Trapped. No, I don't think it was. So anyway, yeah, they came up with this idea for a safety coffin with a little bell. And the idea was that, you know, you'd wake up and you'd ring the bell and you'd be saved by the bell. When I wake up in my coffin and I'm actually not dead, I'm going to pull the cord. There's time. So there's no proof that anyone actually used that device and definitely no proof that it ever saved anybody. Tell you what, you could do some awesome pranks with that thing, though.

Well, wouldn't just a gust of wind make the bell blow? I mean, I don't think they really thought it through. No, you could design a bell to where it's like, you know, those ding ding bells when you want counter service, you know? Yeah. Just have the cord like attached to that. So when you pull it, it ding, ding, ding, you know. You know, if we can get people to really fear this again, then I think you need to patent that. I'm sure it's already been invented, Christy.

Oh, damn. So it seems that this notion that saved by the bell comes from this time period instead of sports is just another example of really cool dramatic people trying to bring some razzle-dazzle into a boring sport. story. You're welcome, everybody. That is interesting history, though, Kristen. I think so. I think that's worth an episode. The fear around being buried alive. Fear being buried alive. Wow, so George Washington had that fear, huh? I'm telling you, a lot of people

had that fear. What if George Washington was like, to make sure I'm dead, stick a finger in my butt? Actually, go ahead and do it now, and let's see how I react right now. If it's warm, I'm still alive. Okay, up next. Meet a deadline, Norman. Just imagining the doctor coming in, sticking his finger.

Everyone, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We are a middle-aged couple. I know you expect more from us. We are middle-aged. On the wrong side of middle-aged. Oh, wow. Uh-huh.

We have been getting a lot of comments from the Gen Zers, though. Yeah. We really appreciate the youngsters listening. We do. We're an inspiration to you all, clearly. I don't think we're supposed to say that we are an inspiration. Yeah, we can do that. Okay, okay.

What's the next phrase or idiom? Meet a deadline? Meet a deadline? Yeah. Okay, well, that's just... Do you know what that even means? A deadline is there's a specific time. this has to be done and if you meet the deadline, you have to get it done by that date.

I thought maybe you didn't know the meaning of it because, you know, you were supposed to present this week. Oh. He left. I am humiliated. I am Carrie on her wedding day. Everyone, everyone. Norm works so hard. So hard.

And I just threw this thing together quickly. And I was like, Norm, if your script's not really. ready, just let me present. And he was like, he had to go look at the ocean for a while. He had to go sit and feed the pigeons. Yeah, he just had to like take several moments. And so it's fun to make fun of him. For his inability to get anything done, really.

My God. Wow. How are you feeling? How are you doing? I told you, I feel humiliated. Oh. I'm embarrassed. Normie, we all love you.

even though you wrote that terrible country song that absolutely no one asked for. I have the melody down. I have a lot of the lyrics. One day I'll actually record it. I think it would be pretty funny. Okay. Maybe I could submit it to Morgan Wallen and be like, I think this is your next big hit. Yeah.

I know this is your next big hit. Hey, before you throw that chair off the top of a building, maybe check out this song I wrote for you. Calm down. It's about you, Morgan. Okay. Meet a deadline. Finish something at or before a given time. Any thoughts on what the origin could possibly be?

Meet the dead line. Deadline. Does that have something to do with war, like battle? Hmm. Oh, man. A deadline. Splish splash. Is there another Navy involved?

Oh, God, is there? The British Navy? No. Again. No, but you're right that there's war involved. Okay. Yeah. Your favorite thing.

Something about, so I know back in old timey times, the warfare was soldiers get in a line. You know, there's gentlemen warfare. Yes. And you shoot at each other. And so I'm wondering if there was like a deadline where it was like you were the first in line to get shot at. Something like that. That is, that is excellent. And I feel like that should be the origin of this.

That's really good. But you're completely wrong. Well, no, I mean, it makes a hell of a lot more sense. then some monk heard something you shouldn't have heard. Okay. Now, I started this episode by defining the word idiom. I said it was a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be understood from the literal definition of its words. But in this case, when we're talking about meeting a dead line, you actually can understand the meaning from the horrifying literal definition of its words.

This idiom comes from the American Civil War. Specifically, the Confederate military prison in Andersonville, Georgia. Oh, future topic. Andersonville. Norm is so excited. I am. My thighs are quivering. At the time, people were starting to use the word deadline to mean a literal but sometimes figurative line around a prison.

So that was a common thing at the time. And if a prisoner were to pass that line, they would likely be shot, thus deadline. Right. But that term really took off when people learned more about that awful Confederate prison in Andersonville. The prison was only in operation for a little more than a year, but it was notorious. Yep. Do you want to talk about it? Way overcrowded.

Yeah. No food. Right. They basically just starve soldiers to death. Right. It was filthy. I mean, I feel like filled is the least of their troubles. It was gross.

It was nasty. Ew. No, like a third of the people who were in prison there died. Yeah. And of course, that prison had a deadline. It was a fence that was about 19 feet tall. And if anyone touched the fence, certainly if they tried to climb it, guards shot them immediately. That prison shut down when the war ended.

And afterward, the guy who'd been in charge of the prison, Henry Wers, was put on trial for war crimes. And they hung him. Yep. So I guess, in a way, he met his own deadline. Hey. Hey. And I think that guy wasn't from the U.S.A. Oh, really?

Yeah, the Henry Wurst guy. I think he was like German or something. Okay. Yeah, he was from Switzerland. Wow. That's not German, but. How dare he? He could have come over with his watches and chocolates.

Instead, he had to start up a prison. My God. Mm-hmm. Up next? Paying through the nose. Oh, I don't hear that one. too often. No, you really don't.

That means you're paying a large sum, right? Yeah, usually more than what something's worth. Yeah. What do you think the origin story is? Oh, um, hmm, through the nose. Is it like, like when you sneeze or blow your nose, like a lot of stuff comes out? So it's like a large amount. Ew.

Why did I ask? You know what? The brainstorming portion of this is over. No, come on. Let me keep guessing. Do you have more? No, that was my guess. Oh, okay, okay.

And actually started from a monk who sneezed too hard. No. So this is a controversial one. Some say it goes way back in time, maybe to the Vikings, maybe to the Middle Ages. No. The general idea is this. A group of people would come to power and they'd tax a group of people. And if anyone didn't pay their tax, then they'd slit their nose.

And in that sense, people paid through their nose. nose. It's disgusting. Just one problem, though, there's no real evidence to support this theory. But a scholar has come forward with a theory on this idiom, and I think it makes perfect sense. Okay. It goes like this. Way back in the day, when the Danish people conquered Ireland, they started taxing the Irish people.

The tax was called a pole tax, but it was also sometimes called a nose tax. So this scholar argued that modern day people, when they try to make sense of this idiom, are making way too much out of the word nose. His point is that a nose tax probably has as much to do with a nose as a head count has to do with a severed head. Okay. The nose tax was likely just a way to convey that each person had to pay it. Oh, so like if you have a nose, you pay the tax. So you're paying through your nose.

Gotcha. But it's not like some. nasty slit your nose off story. Or blow your nose and a lot of stuff comes out. Right. And so... And maybe there's money in there. I didn't say anything about money.

It eventually turned into that, but, you know. Is the scholar correct? That makes sense. No one really knows. Hey. Hey. Maybe one day we'll sniff out the real story. Nice.

Nicely done, Norm. You don't blow. Anyhow. Thank you. You ready for the bees' knees? Is that one? Yeah, the bees' knees. Ooh, I do like saying the bees' knees.

Yeah, what's it mean? So the bees' knees means it's great. Yeah, exactly. Okay. What do you think the origin story is? Hmm. The bees' knees. Well, do bees have knees?

I guess they don't. I mean, kind of. Kind of. Yeah. I don't know on this one. Okay. You know, you really, you really got upset the last time I brainstormed. So I'm just going to let this one go.

You brainstormed too hard into a Kleenex. That was the problem. Back in the late 1700s, when the phrase the bees' knees first became popular, people used it to refer to something small, something inconsequential. But the term got a whole new life and a whole new meaning in the 1920s. During the Roaring 20s, people got creative with their language. It was a glorious time for ridiculous phrases. In the 1920s, if you liked something, you might say it was the bees' knees,

or you might call it the cat's pajamas, or the cat's meow. The cat's pajamas, I've heard that one, yeah. If you thought something was ridiculous, you might shout, oh, banana oil, or, oh, applesau! If someone was important, you might call them the big cheese. Yep. And if they were dumb, you might call them a flat tire. And if someone consumed a little too much bathtub gin, instead of saying they were drunk,

you would, of course, say they were boiled as an owl. Never heard that one. Nope. All this to say that the 1920s were a roaring good time for ridiculous turns of phrase. I really do love this. How about get me out of these wet clothes and into a dry market? Oh, that's cute. Yeah.

Where's that from? It's from a movie from that time period. I like it. I like it. It's a good one. I just feel like the 1920s were a really creative time for language. Yeah. So the Beesneys transformed from its original meaning to something absolutely wonderful.

But why did this happen? Yeah. So the original thing was just like something smaller inconsequential. Yeah, which I think is cute. So like if I stub my toe, I'd be a little. like, well, that was just the bees knees. I guess so. Or like... My wife left me.

That's just the bees. No, that's not. Norman. Norman. That would be devastating. I screwed the pooch. That's the bees'es. Yeah, so how did it change from this is small and inconsequential to this is amazing? I'll tell you. We can give credit to a bartender named Frank Meyer.

In 1921, he was the head bartender at the. Ritz in Paris. The Ritz? Yes. That's where we got the monkey gland cocktail. Really? Yeah, it's the same hotel. Oh my God.

Okay, well, here's a story about another cocktail. One day, he created his own spin on the gin sour cocktail. I've never had this cocktail before, but it's typically gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup. Well, that sounds delicious. Yes. But Frank made his gin sour that day using a simple syrup that called for honey instead of sugar. And he called that drink, the bee's knees. It became very popular during Prohibition because it turns out if you have to drink bathtub gin,

you'd really rather it tastes like honey than an actual bathtub. True. And so, twas the love of drinking and the love of whimsy that gave us the modern meaning of the idiom, The Bees Knees. I just had a lightbulb moment. Okay. What if this bartender just had a kooky accent? and he was trying to say business, but he said, it's the bees knees.

Norm, it's great. I'm trying to start my own bees, knees. And everyone's like, you're so cute. Yes, this is delicious. Bees knees, yes. Because it's kind of a small drink, too. I get it. I understand where we're going with this.

I made a drink for the modern bees knees, man. I'm sorry, bees knees or business? You want to know something cool about this? guy? I mean, besides that he made this wonderful cocktail. What? During World War II, he spied on the Nazis. Hell, yeah. He secured fake IDs for the hotel's Jewish clientele. He passed information. He might, might, might, have been loosely involved in the plot to kill Hitler. Which one? Well, the one that involved the, you know, Valkyrie. We saw the Tom Cruise movie.

Oh, with his big old ass. Yes, my God. But you know, Norm, I actually recently saw. a program on the history channel. It was fascinating. You really got to watch this. No, you didn't. And that's how I learned that Hitler never actually died. Wow. But you know what?

If he had been killed, it would have been the bees knees. Hey. We would have been giving him the bees knees. The bees knees. Hey, there's an idiom I want to know more about giving him the business. He was giving him the business. The business. Okay.

Are you ready for our last one? Yeah. Okay. This has been fun. I have been having fun with this. I cut one. So let me see if I can do it from memory. I just thought this was, you know, a little too obvious.

Spill the beans. Do you know the origin story behind Spill the Beans? So Spill the Beans means fess up, right? Yeah. Yeah. Tell us. Spill the beans. Have something to do with a big old barrel of beans at a dry goods store?

I mean, it does have something to do with a big old barrel of beans. Oh, okay. So in ancient Greece, I guess people would vote using beans and like, you know, a white bean might mean yes, black bean, no, I don't know. But, you know, of course, this was all supposed to be very secretive, very hush, hush, and, you know, the beans would be counted, you know, in private. But if someone oopsies knocked into the vase and spilled the beans, then the secrets were revealed. You'd see who everyone voted for. I cut that one because I thought, eh, but, you know, since this is.

isn't too long. I figured I'd throw it back in there. How about that? Spilled the beans on that one, didn't I? You know, there's been a lot of voter fraud here in the United States. Yeah, let's bring back beans. Let's bring back bean voting. The problem is we got away from beans. Yep, we switched from beans to paper to electronic ballots. Uh-huh. We're bringing beans back. I'm bringing beans back. What? You other voters don't know how to act. What? My God. The Bean Voter Act. Okay, last one. Bless you. Bless you.

A nice thing to say if somebody farts or sneezes or burps. Usually not something someone says after a person farts or burps. I think it's a nice thing to say. Okay, what's the origin? Bless you. I mean, something to do a church, right? Get specific. Norm, you had a whole tale about a cat and a cow and a cow.

You shamed me. You shamed me. Oh, my God. Okay, bless you. Oh, if you're in the sin and booth. You mean confessional? Yeah. You know, you're the one who grew up Catholic.

Yeah. You're in the sinning booth. You say you did something naughty. And so the father's like, I will bless you. And so when you burp or sneeze, that's a little naughty. So you say bless you. Okay. How close was I?

Not a. it all. Okay. Okay. There are a lot of origin stories for this one because it's been around forever. So here's a popular one. Back in the day, people believed that when a person sneezed, their soul left their body for just a moment. Just a brief moment. And in that moment, the devil himself might see that unoccupied vessel and jump inside. Wow, a body snatcher. So by saying God bless you to a person who just sneezed. You were effectively keeping the devil away, long enough for the soul to return to their body.

Better luck next time, Satan. Okay, okay. There was also another theory, kind of in that same vein. But it was that somehow Satan had already gotten into the person's body. Oh. Satan is just all over us. And it was the sneeze that expelled the devil from the body. And so you'd say, bless you to the sneezer

as a way to make extra sure that the devil didn't like lead through the front door, try to get in the back door, you know. There's that famous scene from The Exorcist where she just keeps sneezing. If only someone had just said, bless you, then that movie would have been a lot less traumatizing. Hey, okay, next time somebody sneezes or burps, say... Do you actually say bless you after someone burps? Okay, I do say after sneezing. Next time somebody sneezes, instead of saying bless you, say the power of Christ,

tells you. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, see what happens. And you got to say it, you know, maybe yell it, actually. Mm-hmm. Because we take this seriously. Right. If you have Gatorade or water or, you know, just flinging on them, that'll be the whole water.

Ice coffee, yeah. Ice coffee. Whatever you got on hand. Yeah. There was another theory that if someone was sneezing, then death was near. So bless you was kind of a bitchy way of saying, hey, I've loved our time. together. I can see the bubonic plague is doing its thing.

A sneeze means death is near? Well, I mean, sometimes when I'm sneezing a lot, it's like, okay, either allergies or, uh-oh, maybe I'm coming down with something. So maybe my loved one says, bless you, and then takes off out the door. I've always heard the phrase, if the pee ain't clear, death is near. Uh-huh. So that's how I know. I'm densed with your pee.

Right. Also, you know that classic phrase. if you fart a bunch in an airtight room, you will die and kill the AMS workers. Classic idiom. And it means you're a moron. The fourth and final theory that I will share was a longtime belief that when people sneezed, their hearts temporarily stopped beating. So in that sense, bless you, was kind of a cheery way of saying, oh, welcome back.

Kind of like a maybe like a jumpstart. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But which, if any, of these theories, explains why we say bless you after a person sneezes? Maybe none of them. Yeah. I bet we have no idea. Good thought, Norm.

One thing is for certain. People have been saying bless you after a person sneezes since practically the beginning of time. The first known reference to that practice comes from a piece of writing from 77 AD. But here's what's interesting. That piece of writing, of course, didn't explain why we say, bless you. It just made reference to a sneeze and a bless you. Yeah. In other words, this has been going on for so long

that probably by the time people started asking, why do we say this thing? The actual answer was lost. But just like the devil who is waiting for my soul to leave my body after a particularly good at you, I hope that the real answer isn't too terribly far out of reach. And that is the story behind several well-loved idioms. Oh, that was fun.

Smell you later, history hosts. Wow, yeah, that was fun. That was fun, wasn't it? Yeah, and we could definitely do more of those. There's tons of fun little phrases in it. I think I'm only going to do military ones, and I'm going to explain the military, battles just as well as I did in this episode.

And I'll watch you squirm. I was squirming. Well, Kristen, this brings us into the slop. And let me tell you, folks, if you're not on the $10 tier where you get exclusive access to the slop segment, you're going to want to sign up immediately because in this slop segment, I have 10 phrases, slang words, etc., that the children are saying in 2026

tragically current and I'm going to quiz Kristen and see if she knows what they mean you know I'm a lady who stays on top of everything that's happening I've got my finger on the pulse of the culture so I think I'm going to nail this we'll see let's begin folks if you

were not a member of our pig butter investor tier on Patreon you missed out on an incredible segment of the slop. I did great. Don't spoil it. Okay, okay. Don't spoil it.

But basically Kristen is 16 years old. Yeah, that's what we all learned. Mm-hmm. Very, very cool. Uh-huh. She really knows her slang bees' knees. Six-seven, that's right. Six-seven.

Yep, skibbity, whoop, no cap. Sigma. All the coolest phrases that are still relevant today. I think we bring back bees' knees. There are a lot of 1920s sayings that I think are really fun. Yeah, I bet. All the flappers and the do-dappers and the huggers and the muggers and the sluggers. Are you making things up?

Yeah, definitely. I was like, oh, no. Absolutely. You lost me after flappers. No, a little term. Well, yeah, I said you lost me after flapper. Oh, I see. Yeah.

My goodness. How about the dappers? The slappers? You know what? Let's wrap up this episode. Kristen, you know what they say about history hoes? We always cite our sources. That's right.

For this episode, I got my information from Grammarly. History.com, newspapers.com, business insider, Snopes, Britannica, plus more. Check the show notes for a full list of our sources. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to an old-timey podcast. Please give us a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts. And while you're at it, subscribe. Support us on Patreon at patreon.com

slash old-timey podcast. Join the Reddit community, R-slash old-timey podcast. Follow us on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram at Old Timey Podcast. And you can follow us individually on Instagram. I'm at Kristen Pitts-Karuso and he's at Gaming Historian.

And until next time, Tudulu, Tata, and Cheerio. Bye. See you. See you later, alligator. In a while, Crocodile. Thank you.