August 22, 2025 • 39 mins
Bradley Jay Fills in on NightSide
Have you ever wondered where some of the weird phrases we use originated from? For example, chances are you've heard the phrase, "over my dead body" or "riding shotgun". How about the term “hungover”? Why do we use such bizarre expressions or terms? Bradley will discuss these phrases and terms and their origins! We also want to hear your example of an odd expression you might hear a lot!
Have you ever wondered where some of the weird phrases we use originated from? For example, chances are you've heard the phrase, "over my dead body" or "riding shotgun". How about the term “hungover”? Why do we use such bizarre expressions or terms? Bradley will discuss these phrases and terms and their origins! We also want to hear your example of an odd expression you might hear a lot!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling Youbsy Boston's met Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thank you, Al Griffith, Okay, halfway point here, halftime, I guess,
and the rest of the show, it's all you. It's
Friday night, and I hope it's Friday night. Otherwise I'm
in big trouble. And as I say, it's gonna be
you calling me and I have some fun things to
(00:26):
get involved with, and I'll do that when we get going.
I have wise old sayings or phrases that we use
all the time. We don't really know where they came from.
So I'm going to go through some of those, and
I'm not going to tell you what they mean yet.
And while you're thinking, I'm going to make a couple
(00:48):
of observations of things that happened during the day, and
then we'll dig down into what those mean. I don't
mind if you do this as a take home quiz
and open book quiz. I don't mind if you look
them up on longline. If you have any that you
want to quiz me or not not really quiz, but
(01:09):
just explain. That's cool too. Whise old No, I shouldn't
say wise old saying, but phrase phrases we use all
the time. We have no clue what they mean. I
am fascinated by this and some of the phrases that
I will share with you the origins of include hungover
(01:32):
or hangover. I'll go with hangover. Where's that come from?
I don't mind if you look it up? If you'd
I'm gonna trust you. If you had to look it up,
you can tell me or not. Mad is a hatter?
Where's that come from? And you can guess too. Some
of these you can guess. Some of them are easier
(01:53):
than others. Riding shotgun? Where does that come from? What
is the origin of that? Of salts? What's the origin
of that? Drinking the kool aid? As in, oh, that
guy's drinking the kool aid? Bite the bullet? You might
know that one a hot shot? An hot shot someone
(02:18):
who flaunts their success. That's the definition. But where does
that come from? Six? One seven is the number to
call to have a little fun. I'm all about having fun.
I'm I'm very loosey goosey for the rest of the evening.
Here true colors. Oh boy, that person really showed their
(02:44):
true colors. Oh I guess she showed her true colors.
Where's that come from? Peeping Tom, one of my favorites,
Peeping Tom? Why Tom? The whole shebang? The whole shebang?
(03:06):
And he guesses on the origin of that, and again
you can look it up. There's no This is not
a You're not gonna be graded. This is an entertainment.
Nest egg, nest egg. It sounds like the match game.
(03:27):
The past word is nest egg. Baker's dozen, cold Shoulder
six one, seven, two five. Let's do this, It's gonna
be fun. Devil's advocates. Devils advocate raining cats and dogs.
(03:58):
Upper crust. What is the origin of the phrase, I'll recrusts.
It's a real thing. And wake, Wake, I guess, I guess.
I guess. We're good to go right away. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
(04:20):
ten thirty. There are number of ways to play this one.
You can take a crack at any of those I've
given you, and I don't care if you look them up. Two.
You can give one to me. You probably know one
that I don't know, and I would love it, love it,
love it if you would give me one. Because I
like guessing. I don't I'm not right very often, but
(04:43):
I like trying to figure it out. So, boy, would
I like it if you had one that I could
guess And I don't care whether you look them up
or not. This is cool. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty And we go to rows right out of
the gate Rose in Wilmington Rose. Any of those you
want to take a crack at or do you have
(05:04):
one for me?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, the first one I had heard pat was mad
as a Hatter, and I believe it was the fact
that the chemicals that they used in doing the hats
is what made them a little loopy.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That is correct, mad as a Hatter back when they
well they still make hats out of for a felt,
but for a long time the chemical used to make
the hats was mercury based.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I'm like, I don't remember what the chemicals were that
they yeah exposing themselves to, but they were all supposedly
thought to be crazy for that reason because they literally
poisoned themselves with mercury.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Then they're not a hatter. If you're wearing something that's
treated with mercury around your sweaty head, that that wouldn't
be great for you either.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, they used to have the you know, back in
the Oregon Trail days, they used to have all the
the plates that that plate were actually is toxic to
you though, you know, we didn't have a long length
of time in life as it was, but they were
also poisoning themselves in that manner.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I think, or whatnot?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I think that what you're mentioning now about playwear is
related to another one of these.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Pretty interesting what's that one? I didn't hear it.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I think another one of the sayings or phrases that
we're looking at the answer also involves these plates that
you mentioned. So and in a related kind of topic,
vin Vincent van go there, there's thought that he used
a lot of yellow paint, and there's a thought that
(06:46):
a chemical and that made him that gave him his
psychological issues that he had, like yellow paint overdose. And
you'll notice in his work there's a heck of a
lot of yellow paint. So you're in Wilmington. Anything you
want to tell us a little bit about you? I'm curious.
I want to get to know everybody.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
M mom of two, one in college, one going off
to college. Was accepted today to Colby Soyer into the
nursing program.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
I'm so excited nursing program.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Congratulations on that, Colby Sawyer. Enough is that in New.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Hampshire, Yes, New London, New Hampshire.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Wow, I'm from New Hampshire, so I'm glad to see
anybody talking happily about New Hampshire. So thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Rose, have a great day injury weekend. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It's Nathan and Maldon and Nathan, you're on ww Z.
You want to take your cracking on.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
How you doing? Pardon?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I am well, thank you.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I'm glad to hear it.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
So the writing shotgun, that is actually a literal phrase.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
In the days of the stage.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Coaches, when you rode from one place to another, you
had to have a guard hard riding next to you
with a shotgun. That's where riding.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Shotgun comes from my belief.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
That's correct. There's a little bit of a a thing,
a caveat.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
I don't know if that's the word, a caveat. Caveat
will be good.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Okay, So back in stage coach days they did do that,
but I don't think they called it that, at least
my source said they didn't start calling it riding shotgun
until the twentieth century when the Western started to be popular.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it came from the movies of seeing
it and then the gangsters living it in real life.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yep. So riding shotgun that is correct?
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Or or all right?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I called shotgun, of course, is the modern use for that.
I got shot down the modern very good. Yeah, appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Can I take a guess at one other?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yes? Absolutely?
Speaker 7 (08:53):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And all right, do you have one for me? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Oh, I'll try to come up with one. But I
got to take a guess that hungover and this is
pure conjecture. Okay.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
There was a time when abstinence was being forced on
people from one end of this country to the other,
going all the way back to the days of the Puritans,
where if they caught you drunk, they would hang you
over a saw horse the next day, or they would
put you.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
In the stocks, hanging on the stocks, hanging in the stocks.
Speaker 6 (09:33):
And I gotta think that that might be where it
comes from.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
I don't know that that's a wild guest.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Sounds reasonable, but that's not the the answer that I have.
And I've actually seen this two or three places and
talked to two or three people, and I'm not going
to give the answer. I'm going to give somebody else
a chance to answer that. And as we continue, I
would love it if if you would go into uh
(10:03):
Google or something and search origins origins of common phrases
and try to stump me. I would love that. So
anybody who hasn't anybody who hasn't called yet, even if
you don't want to take a chance on guessing what
one of these is, I would dig it. As they say,
if you try to stump me, I'd love to try
(10:24):
to to figure these out. So it's pretty easy. There
are all kinds of websites with these phrase origins. Just
Google phrase origins, top ten phrase origins, twenty one phrase origins,
and they're they're out there.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
So I got you. I'd love to call back in
and stump you.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Sometimes can't come up with one off the top of
my head, though, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Unfortunately, I don't think you're allowed to call back tonight,
But anybody who hasn't called yet, that would be great.
So thank you, Thank you, Nathan and Maldon. Maldon, excuse me,
I better get a drink of water so we'll break
And Nate was wrong as far as I know about
(11:06):
hang hungover or hangover, the riding shotgun is gone, nobody's done,
pinch of salt or drinking the kool aid, or deadline
or bite the bullet, hot shot, Peeping Tom, the whole Shebang,
nest egg Baker's dozen, page two, Cold Shoulder, Peeping Tom's
(11:28):
I said, Peeping Tom, Devil's Advocate. I like that one.
Either really love raining cats and dogs upper Crust, and
I love wake And I hope you'll look some up
and try to stump me to six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty back and just two shakes of a lamb's tail.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
You're on Night Side with Dan ray On Dell Youbzy
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Phrases we use every day and don't know what they mean,
and it's always pretty much always really interesting to find
out what they do mean. And that's what we're doing now.
I have a given a list of phrases that I'll
tell you the answer to, but you need to guess first.
If nobody gets them, I'll tell you at the end.
If somebody gets one, I'll cross it off. And I
(12:11):
would love if you would quizz me. I would love
it if you would google for certain phrases. Just Google
phrase origin origins and ask me, and I promise, I
promise I will not look it up. If I don't
know the answer, I'll just be wrong. Next is Alex
in Millers. Hello, my friend, Alex, Alex are you there?
Speaker 8 (12:36):
How are you doing? Bradley?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
All right?
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Just which one do you want to try?
Speaker 9 (12:43):
I've heard crazy like a fox And a friend of
mine used to where I used to work. He always
used to say, we're not here for a long time,
We're here for a good time, right, So.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
What is crazy? The way it would work with you
would be you would ask me, what's the origin of
crazy like a fox?
Speaker 8 (13:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (13:02):
What's your origin of crazy like a fox?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
You probably you don't know, so you're not gonna. I
could make something up and you would never know. But
it has to be Foxes was supposed to be wiley.
They were wiley. Foxes were wiley, and they and they
they acted in an unorthodox manner, and so someone who
is wiley an accident and unorthodox manner. But Winds would
(13:26):
be crazy like a fox. Right, there you go, boy
one for me? Thank you, Alex. Then now it's Laura
in Middleborough. How you doing, Laura?
Speaker 10 (13:42):
Hi?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Hi? There, Laura, you are on the air with Bradley
j on w b Z. Do you want to take
a shot at one of these phrases? And it's it's origin.
Speaker 11 (13:57):
Do you know what Murphy's law came from?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Ooh, ooh, this is a good one, Murphy's law, And
you know what, I'm stumped. You stumped me, all.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Right, Murphy's law.
Speaker 11 (14:10):
What I googled it was that it was named after
an engineer, Murphy, who was an aerodynamic engineer doing experiments
on zero gravitivity on humans, and he set up all
the electrodes on the humans to detect everything that would happen.
So when they shot him out and then he came back,
(14:34):
he had all these sores on his face, but nothing
was detected. So the thing is that the electrodes could
be put on one way, but all the technicians put
them on the opposite way, so nothing was detected. So
Murphy screamed out, if anything can go wrong, it would
(14:56):
be these guys. But how it came to be that
are these law? Anything can go wrong, you know, versus
the engineers that set that up. But that's how that
became law.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
If anything can go wrong, it will.
Speaker 11 (15:11):
Yeah, But he was referring to the engineer's technicians who
were setting up these electrodes.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Okay, good, So Murphy was saying to the engineers, you
guys are terrible. Okay, that's a good one.
Speaker 11 (15:32):
Night.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, I know people. I know other people in Middleboro too,
shouting out to Middleborough. Everybody in Middleborough. Hi from w
b Z, Mike and Taunton. How you doing, Mike, if you.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
Live in taught it's good inning, Jery, thanks for taking
my call. I'm gonna try a pinch your salt. Pinch
try it. I'm going to try.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
This is a very specific historical reference, so good luck.
Speaker 8 (16:01):
This is this is a guess only I did not
look up. Nope, all right, years ago, many years ago.
Salt was expensive, way back in the day. And I
think a pitch of salt may have had to do
with a person's weight. So if the scales came close,
they gave it a pitch of salt, you got leveled out.
(16:24):
And that's what he got paid. Number two, can you
tell me the definition of debt as a doornail? And
I had heard about this years ago from somewhere. I
don't know if I read it or what, but the
explanation was given.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
There.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You mean the the origin of that debt is a doornail?
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
All right, let me take a shot at it. Doornails
are particularly heavy nails. And what pet What the carpenters
or whoever you know built doors did was.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
They would you're, you're close the nail in.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Almost at the very end. Then they would bend the
nail over so it could never be used again. And
that meant the nail was dead because it could bend
and it would never be used again. And so there
you go, something dead as a door nail can't be
used again.
Speaker 8 (17:18):
Okay, that's one version. But the thing that I heard
is that a fairly rich person passed away. Back in
the medieval times, nails were expensive. Okay, the more nails
that he had in his household door supposedly showed his wealth.
(17:41):
The more nails, Oh, he was wealthy, you could afford
all these nails. Now, that's that's what I read many years.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Relate to being dead as a how does the dead
factor come in there?
Speaker 8 (17:52):
Well, the factored in is that you know, if somebody
passed a wealthy person's houses are all these heavy oak
doors that had all these doornails in it from the outside.
So he was wealthy and he you know.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But what does it have to do with dead?
Speaker 8 (18:14):
The nails just registered the person that passed away as.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well a person who's passed away. Okay, that answers my question.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
All all right, either one of us would be interesting
if somebody else came up with another thing for that
dead as a doornail. But pit your salt. I think
that had to do with measuring a person's weight in salt.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
All right, So that's not what I'm probably I'm probably
out I'm probably out there.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
But it could be used for cooking too.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
But anyway, I guess I'll answer this one. I mean,
I don't want to run out of these. But it
was an ancient guy named Pliny. He may have been
a historian, but Greek Roman times something like that.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
He was.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
He was afraid of being poisoned, so his plan was
to take a little bit of poison all the time
and try to get immune to the poison, build up
an immunity to these poisons. But the poisons tasted bad,
so with each little mini dose of poison, he would
(19:23):
use a pinch of salt along to go with the
poison and that's where pinch of salt comes from. The
thing is he According to the legend, he did build
up a tolerance and at some point I think he
tried to poison himself and was unable to because he
built up a tolerance. But p L I N Y
(19:47):
is the is the ancient the ancient person. And that's wow.
That's what I have for pinch of salt. So take
that poison with a pinch of salt.
Speaker 8 (20:01):
Okay, all right, sir, Well, I don't want to take
any more of your time. Have a great evening, sir.
Have a good weekend you too, Mike. Take care all right,
take care bye bye.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You know what the best thing is about this job,
and I love it for this is I get to
have I get to talk to you in a real way.
I get to know people. When you meet people in person,
you know, you make small talk. But somehow when you
call WBZ, I get to talk to you in a
real way about real stuff, in a way that you
(20:33):
couldn't get away with in person. And this stuff is fun.
Mike and Tonton, we'll go to Ruth and Marlborough next.
What do you think you want to take a shot
at one of these. I'll run through the list again
because some of us just join us. When we return
on WBZ, It's.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Night Side, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Thank you Elgod once again. Bradley Jay here in for Dan,
and we're having some fun with the origins of popular phrases,
words phrases that we use all the time and we
don't really know where they come from. It's quite surprising
how many come from the Middle Ages that long ago,
and a lot of them come from British naval terms
(21:22):
like son of a gun, et cetera. I can't actually
I can't tell you the son of a gun one
is probably not appropriate, but that's an example. Now we
go to Who's Next Ruth in Marlborough, Ruth and Marlborough.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Okay, Hi Ruth, Hello there.
Speaker 10 (21:39):
I like your program very much. I wanted to give
you one to see if I can stump you.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 10 (21:46):
Okay, You've got me over a barrel.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
All right, I'm thinking my wheels are turning. They're Attorney.
I've got you over a barrel. I give up. You
stumped me, I give up? What is it? Ruth?
Speaker 10 (22:10):
Uh? It's when sailors used to fight on board ship.
They try to get their opponent over a barrel on
his back where he was helpless to return the fight.
You've got me over a barrel. I can't do anything.
(22:31):
And it applies today too with you know decisions. You
know your decision is right, You've got me over a barrel.
But it originated on board ship.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I love that. I'm going to remember that forever. As
I mentioned just before, you said that a lot of
them come from British naval stuff. Right, that's probably one
of those. Right, good one, good one, you got it,
you got me, you beat me.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
Thanks.
Speaker 10 (23:00):
I like your program, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I'm gonna run through in case you just joined us,
some of the phrases that I'd like you to guess.
And I it's very cool that Ruth came in with
one for me. I like that just as much. Ones.
I don't think that we've answered nobody's got hangover or hungover?
(23:24):
Pinch of salt? We did do. I'll cross that out.
Drinking the kool Aid, deadline, bite the bullet, uh, hot shot,
Hey like hey you hot shot? True colors, Beeping Tom,
which is one of my favorites, the Whole Shebang, nest Egg,
(23:46):
Baker's Dozen, and cold shoulder, Devil's advocate, raining cats and dogs,
upper crust and wake. All right now it's Ken and
walthamure and busy Ken.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
Hi, Hi there, Yeah, I have one for you. But
would I did look up because I figure baker's dozen
with the generosity of the baking community, because you bought
twelve and they threw in an extra. But what I
looked up corrected that notion. And then it was I
(24:25):
think thirteenth century England there were heavy regulations on bread
weight and if you were caught under selling, you were
severely punished, including potentially flogging and other physical punishments. So
the bakers always threw in an extra to make sure
they were over that weight.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
That is exactly correct. Great, great, great, yep. They wanted
to play it safe. They I guess it was too
easy to rip off the customers, and so that an
edict came out, Hey, you better not cheat the customer
or it's going to be serious punishment. To avoid the punishment,
they would overdo it and make sure there's a whole
extra slice in there, and that would be the baker's
(25:07):
doesn't great? Great? Great? Now what do you got from me?
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Have you talked?
Speaker 7 (25:12):
I called in Lee. So I don't know if this
has come up, but mind your p's and q's. Has
anybody bought that up yet?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Boy, I'm feeling pretty dumb tonight, but I still love
trying mind your p's and q's. Okay, So p's and q's,
I'm guessing looked maybe they looked very similar. Say, you
would have to pay extra attention to the P and
the Q. And uh, I guess that means then that's
(25:40):
why the similarity of the P and Q requiring extra attention.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
So that's at least partial credits. But I'm I'm gonna
tell this quickly. So when I went to Buckman's tavern
on a tour in Lexington, they told me that back
in the eighteenth century, when patrons bought ale, they would
(26:08):
buy it in quantities of punts and quartz. Oh and
they used to, you know, keep things on the tracket,
like on the wall or on a chalkboard or whatever.
And if they started building up too many without paying,
they had to mind their peas and accues.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Oh, so pay attention to how much you've been drinking?
Speaker 12 (26:27):
Right?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Exactly what I said was wrong completely? Then not?
Speaker 7 (26:33):
Well, there's a however, to give me just another thirties.
So I learned that maybe thirty or forty years ago
when I was a young man. Just in the past year,
I would I went to the I think it's the
Baltimore Museum of Industry where they had the printing presses
and how all those you know, they used to type
(26:54):
sad and all of that, And they said, you know,
and you used to do it. Have to do a
min mirror image, right, and a P and a Q
is a mirror image of each other. So just like
you were saying that the pressers had to that's I
don't even know if that's the right term. But when
they were doing the type setting, they had to mind
(27:15):
their piece and cues because it was very easy for
them to mix things up with those letters, particularly because
they Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
So I feel a little better about myself.
Speaker 7 (27:26):
Well not only that, but they told that story. I
told them the Buckman Tavern story, and they told me
I was wrong, that that's not true.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
But how do they know it's not true? These people,
how do they know it's not true?
Speaker 7 (27:39):
I don't know, you know what, I think they also
thought the Ravens are better than the Patriots, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
That's the credibility problem right there.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
But anyway, there's a lot of fun and I'm really
enjoying the show.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Thank you very nice. Everybody in Waltham looks like I
have time for another one before the break. That's fantastic.
We have Pelvis in Middleton. Hello Pelvis, Hello Pelvis. Oh,
Pelvis not there, Well, we have time for Jack and
Dorchester then Hi Jack.
Speaker 8 (28:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (28:13):
Doesn't peeping Tom come from? I don't know whether it's
a myth or what, but Lady could dive of Ah.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, how much do you want to do? You know
the whole thing. Give me as much as you can.
Speaker 12 (28:30):
It's something about her husband was taxing the townspeople to well,
Lady could dive a thought too much, so she wrote
through the town naked.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
On a horse.
Speaker 12 (28:45):
And I supposedly know we were supposed to peep, except
for this guy named Tom who peeked.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yes. Then you have that, you have the broad stokes
of it getting real, getting a little more granular. There
was Lady good Diver, and she lived. She wasn't an
English noble woman, and she was married to a guy
named Earl Leffrick L E O F R I C.
They lived in country Coventry, excuse me, Coventry, England. And
(29:16):
you're right. Taxes were high, and the husband said, all right,
if you right through town naked a lower taxes And
the deal was that the all the shutters in the
town would be shut and no one would look. However,
as you say, this guy named Tom peaked or peeked,
(29:38):
if you will, ye. And so not only not only
did he you know, he got he didn't just get
in trouble. The whole thing was anybody that peaks is
going to either go blind or or blind or something.
But but Tom, he he peeped, and he went blind.
I guess.
Speaker 8 (29:58):
Okay, all right, real quick.
Speaker 12 (30:00):
Are you ever in touch with Joe Matthew.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yes? I actually got a text from him last night.
He actually listened to the show last night.
Speaker 8 (30:10):
Oh cool, Good time to shout out to.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Joe since you brought it up. Shout out to Joe Man.
Speaker 12 (30:16):
Yeah, he's on vacation. I take it any right, Okay,
good hearing from you again, and I'll try and get
in touched next week.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Sure, thanks very much. That's great. So is there anything
else with the peeping Tom?
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah there is. You might ask, why Tom? Why do
they choose the name Tom because back then, this is
eleventh century geez, that's like ten sixty six, the Battle
of Hastings, that's the eleventh century, same basic time, and
back then Tom, the name Tom was associated with fools,
(30:53):
hence the name Tom foolery. And in Tom, Dick and
Harry that's saying Tom is the fool. So I bet
you learned. I bet you didn't know that. No, you do,
But that Lady Good, I have a Story is always
That's one of my favorites, and I always think of Good.
(31:14):
I have a chocolate's when I hear that story, and
I love chocolate and I have to get some. During
the break, we'll go to Blackston. It's just Blaxton here.
I don't know that's Blackstone, but either way, we'll go
to chip next.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
On WBZ, it's Night Side with Ray on wb Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Here we are, It's Nightside with Dan Ray Bradley j
for Dan in next week too. I don't think I
told you that, but there it is. I guess some
folks know, some folks don't, but it's true. The rumor
is true. And we're looking at the origins of phrases.
I've given out a bunch and I did it just recently.
I'll do it soon again, but I'm not going to
(31:56):
run through it right now. Chip in Blackstone wants to
either try to give me the origin of one of
those phrases or maybe stump me on one. I'm the
zero for three by the way, actually I'm I guess
one and a half for three. Chip.
Speaker 13 (32:12):
How you doing, I'm good, Bradley, how are you? Did
anyone give you the cold shoulder? Yet?
Speaker 2 (32:20):
No go for it. What's the origin of the phrase
cold shoulder?
Speaker 13 (32:24):
Well? I did google it and it says it has
been said that is the story of a bad guest
breaking hospitality rules and all the chaos that broke out
because of that. This suggests just how important hospitality was
in the past, so it's no surprise that a guest
would be received with a grand meal in the Middle Ages. However,
(32:45):
what happens when they overstay their welcome They would be
served leftovers, such as a cold shoulder of mutton from
the previous night's dinner, leading to this memorable phrase.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yeah, that's right, so back then maybe even now if McCoy, Yeah,
I think it is too, that's what I that's what
I understand. So if anyone serves you, you know cold,
you know, some cold mutton. There's not a lot of
mutton out there these days, but I guess the modern
version of it, if somebody gives you some leftovers, you
(33:18):
got to figure you've overstayed, you're welcome, or maybe they
just don't have anything else. I mean, I wouldn't have
anything else in my house. I would have. You know,
you'd be getting leftovers. You'd be getting leftover craft macaroni
and cheese.
Speaker 13 (33:33):
Oh yeah, good one.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
You haven't. You don't happen to have one for me,
do you?
Speaker 13 (33:37):
Well? I kind of gave you a hint. You know
what the real McCoy is.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Oh well, okay, well they must have been fake McCoy's
in order to have need a real one. And McCoy's.
There's McCoy's and hat Fields. That's only McCoy I know.
So let's see, I'm gonna guess that one of the
hats fields killed by accident, someone that was not a
(34:07):
McCoy thinking thinking it was McCoy, like it was an
imposter or something.
Speaker 13 (34:13):
And you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
If not get the real McCoy, that's my guess.
Speaker 13 (34:19):
You know. I googled that one earlier, but I lost
the answer. It was kind of long.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Well maybe somebody else will know.
Speaker 13 (34:29):
Okay, here it is okay. Most likely originated from the
high quality lubricating device for steam engines invented by Elijah McCoy.
Engineers would specifically request the device, known as the Real
McCoy system to avoid inferior copies.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I love that I was. I was very, very.
Speaker 13 (34:50):
Wrong, but it could be synonymous with anything genuine and authentic.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That's great. I love to know that. I didn't know that.
Now I know that. Now we all know that.
Speaker 13 (35:00):
We also know that popped in my head I was
driving home. Listen the geez, I wonder if you've got
the real McCoy there.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
That's a great one and show that's right. Very good ship.
Thank you so much, Thank you talking to welcome. Feel
free to call in. I hope, I hope the experience
of calling in was fun for you, is fun for you.
And I know that I know that it's nerve wracking
because I've been on the radio most of my life.
(35:26):
I've been a professional radio person since nineteen eighty one,
and still if I call a talk show I'm nervous.
It's so it's strange, but I really empathize with not
wanting to call in. But I think if you do
it once and you have a nice experience like that.
(35:46):
Now we all know Chip, I know Chip, you know
it's me or pals calling any time Chip. But if
you were a person who's really really nervous about calling
in and having a conversation, there is an additional option
and to include more folks, folks that you know don't
really feel comfortable calling it. And that's this. It's a
(36:08):
cool way for you to be part of the Nightside
broadcast by using the talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app. Now,
if you, if you are comfortable using an app, and
many of you are, you open the iHeartRadio app, you
download it, you open it while you're listening to Nightside
Live on WBZ News Radio ten thirty and in the
(36:30):
upper right hand corner will be very clearly this microphone.
You tap on the microphone and talk your message into it.
And it is that simple. You just hit the red
microphone button the top right corner of the app while
listening to Nightside. We get your message and we may
play it. So I would ergeer not to do that
(36:53):
instead of calling. But if it's a way, the only
way that you're comfortable with being part of the program,
then go for it. We had somebody do it a
couple nights ago and I loved it. Sound quality was
really good, so thank you for that. Let me run
through these and maybe I'll even give you one. Give
(37:16):
you one before the top of the hoar. Here are
the sayings that I'm urging you to take a guess
at or even as you've noticed, it's fine if you
google him, because the point is to have fun and
actually maybe learn a little something. So it's a take
home quiz. It's a it's an open book quiz. You
can google it here. We did Cold Shoulder. We did
(37:37):
Peeping Tom. Pep Tom was one of my favorites. Devil's Advocate,
that's very specific, Devil's Advocate raining cats and dogs. Also
very specific. Upper crust that's kind of a science y one,
believe it or not. And wake the term wake like
(38:00):
we held a wake for the deceased, Still no one
on hungover. We did dead as a door nail, drinking
the kool Aid. Oh boy, that guy's drinking the kool aid.
Oh wow, you're drinking the kool aid, meaning you're believing,
(38:22):
you're believing that, you're just absorbing that without questioning. You
just drinking the kool aid. Where's that come from? Deadline, bite,
the bullet, hotshot, true colors, the whole shebang. Nest egg.
(38:46):
You can figure out the nest egg, I think, and
we did. Baker's doesn't okay? And I'd love to have
you stump me with something. So far, I've only gotten
one and a half of one, but it's fun. Six
one two six one seven two five four ten thirty
is the number. Six one seven two five four ten thirty.
(39:08):
By the way, if if you're into travel and you're
looking for a destination, thinking of something, you might try
the Bradley j Travel channel on YouTube. There's over two
hundred videos there of a lot of destinations, all the
main ones, all the popular ones, but there are other
ones like Romania, Montenegro, Croatia. That's Bradley Jay Travel on YouTube.
(39:31):
Subscribe now this
Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling Youbsy Boston's met Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thank you, Al Griffith, Okay, halfway point here, halftime, I guess,
and the rest of the show, it's all you. It's
Friday night, and I hope it's Friday night. Otherwise I'm
in big trouble. And as I say, it's gonna be
you calling me and I have some fun things to
(00:26):
get involved with, and I'll do that when we get going.
I have wise old sayings or phrases that we use
all the time. We don't really know where they came from.
So I'm going to go through some of those, and
I'm not going to tell you what they mean yet.
And while you're thinking, I'm going to make a couple
(00:48):
of observations of things that happened during the day, and
then we'll dig down into what those mean. I don't
mind if you do this as a take home quiz
and open book quiz. I don't mind if you look
them up on longline. If you have any that you
want to quiz me or not not really quiz, but
(01:09):
just explain. That's cool too. Whise old No, I shouldn't
say wise old saying, but phrase phrases we use all
the time. We have no clue what they mean. I
am fascinated by this and some of the phrases that
I will share with you the origins of include hungover
(01:32):
or hangover. I'll go with hangover. Where's that come from?
I don't mind if you look it up? If you'd
I'm gonna trust you. If you had to look it up,
you can tell me or not. Mad is a hatter?
Where's that come from? And you can guess too. Some
of these you can guess. Some of them are easier
(01:53):
than others. Riding shotgun? Where does that come from? What
is the origin of that? Of salts? What's the origin
of that? Drinking the kool aid? As in, oh, that
guy's drinking the kool aid? Bite the bullet? You might
know that one a hot shot? An hot shot someone
(02:18):
who flaunts their success. That's the definition. But where does
that come from? Six? One seven is the number to
call to have a little fun. I'm all about having fun.
I'm I'm very loosey goosey for the rest of the evening.
Here true colors. Oh boy, that person really showed their
(02:44):
true colors. Oh I guess she showed her true colors.
Where's that come from? Peeping Tom, one of my favorites,
Peeping Tom? Why Tom? The whole shebang? The whole shebang?
(03:06):
And he guesses on the origin of that, and again
you can look it up. There's no This is not
a You're not gonna be graded. This is an entertainment.
Nest egg, nest egg. It sounds like the match game.
(03:27):
The past word is nest egg. Baker's dozen, cold Shoulder
six one, seven, two five. Let's do this, It's gonna
be fun. Devil's advocates. Devils advocate raining cats and dogs.
(03:58):
Upper crust. What is the origin of the phrase, I'll recrusts.
It's a real thing. And wake, Wake, I guess, I guess.
I guess. We're good to go right away. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
(04:20):
ten thirty. There are number of ways to play this one.
You can take a crack at any of those I've
given you, and I don't care if you look them up. Two.
You can give one to me. You probably know one
that I don't know, and I would love it, love it,
love it if you would give me one. Because I
like guessing. I don't I'm not right very often, but
(04:43):
I like trying to figure it out. So, boy, would
I like it if you had one that I could
guess And I don't care whether you look them up
or not. This is cool. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty And we go to rows right out of
the gate Rose in Wilmington Rose. Any of those you
want to take a crack at or do you have
(05:04):
one for me?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, the first one I had heard pat was mad
as a Hatter, and I believe it was the fact
that the chemicals that they used in doing the hats
is what made them a little loopy.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That is correct, mad as a Hatter back when they
well they still make hats out of for a felt,
but for a long time the chemical used to make
the hats was mercury based.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I'm like, I don't remember what the chemicals were that
they yeah exposing themselves to, but they were all supposedly
thought to be crazy for that reason because they literally
poisoned themselves with mercury.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Then they're not a hatter. If you're wearing something that's
treated with mercury around your sweaty head, that that wouldn't
be great for you either.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, they used to have the you know, back in
the Oregon Trail days, they used to have all the
the plates that that plate were actually is toxic to
you though, you know, we didn't have a long length
of time in life as it was, but they were
also poisoning themselves in that manner.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I think, or whatnot?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I think that what you're mentioning now about playwear is
related to another one of these.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Pretty interesting what's that one? I didn't hear it.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I think another one of the sayings or phrases that
we're looking at the answer also involves these plates that
you mentioned. So and in a related kind of topic,
vin Vincent van go there, there's thought that he used
a lot of yellow paint, and there's a thought that
(06:46):
a chemical and that made him that gave him his
psychological issues that he had, like yellow paint overdose. And
you'll notice in his work there's a heck of a
lot of yellow paint. So you're in Wilmington. Anything you
want to tell us a little bit about you? I'm curious.
I want to get to know everybody.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
M mom of two, one in college, one going off
to college. Was accepted today to Colby Soyer into the
nursing program.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
I'm so excited nursing program.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Congratulations on that, Colby Sawyer. Enough is that in New.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Hampshire, Yes, New London, New Hampshire.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Wow, I'm from New Hampshire, so I'm glad to see
anybody talking happily about New Hampshire. So thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Rose, have a great day injury weekend. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It's Nathan and Maldon and Nathan, you're on ww Z.
You want to take your cracking on.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
How you doing? Pardon?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I am well, thank you.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I'm glad to hear it.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
So the writing shotgun, that is actually a literal phrase.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
In the days of the stage.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Coaches, when you rode from one place to another, you
had to have a guard hard riding next to you
with a shotgun. That's where riding.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Shotgun comes from my belief.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
That's correct. There's a little bit of a a thing,
a caveat.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
I don't know if that's the word, a caveat. Caveat
will be good.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Okay, So back in stage coach days they did do that,
but I don't think they called it that, at least
my source said they didn't start calling it riding shotgun
until the twentieth century when the Western started to be popular.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it came from the movies of seeing
it and then the gangsters living it in real life.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yep. So riding shotgun that is correct?
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Or or all right?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I called shotgun, of course, is the modern use for that.
I got shot down the modern very good. Yeah, appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Can I take a guess at one other?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yes? Absolutely?
Speaker 7 (08:53):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And all right, do you have one for me? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Oh, I'll try to come up with one. But I
got to take a guess that hungover and this is
pure conjecture. Okay.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
There was a time when abstinence was being forced on
people from one end of this country to the other,
going all the way back to the days of the Puritans,
where if they caught you drunk, they would hang you
over a saw horse the next day, or they would
put you.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
In the stocks, hanging on the stocks, hanging in the stocks.
Speaker 6 (09:33):
And I gotta think that that might be where it
comes from.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
I don't know that that's a wild guest.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Sounds reasonable, but that's not the the answer that I have.
And I've actually seen this two or three places and
talked to two or three people, and I'm not going
to give the answer. I'm going to give somebody else
a chance to answer that. And as we continue, I
would love it if if you would go into uh
(10:03):
Google or something and search origins origins of common phrases
and try to stump me. I would love that. So
anybody who hasn't anybody who hasn't called yet, even if
you don't want to take a chance on guessing what
one of these is, I would dig it. As they say,
if you try to stump me, I'd love to try
(10:24):
to to figure these out. So it's pretty easy. There
are all kinds of websites with these phrase origins. Just
Google phrase origins, top ten phrase origins, twenty one phrase origins,
and they're they're out there.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
So I got you. I'd love to call back in
and stump you.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Sometimes can't come up with one off the top of
my head, though, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Unfortunately, I don't think you're allowed to call back tonight,
But anybody who hasn't called yet, that would be great.
So thank you, Thank you, Nathan and Maldon. Maldon, excuse me,
I better get a drink of water so we'll break
And Nate was wrong as far as I know about
(11:06):
hang hungover or hangover, the riding shotgun is gone, nobody's done,
pinch of salt or drinking the kool aid, or deadline
or bite the bullet, hot shot, Peeping Tom, the whole Shebang,
nest egg Baker's dozen, page two, Cold Shoulder, Peeping Tom's
(11:28):
I said, Peeping Tom, Devil's Advocate. I like that one.
Either really love raining cats and dogs upper Crust, and
I love wake And I hope you'll look some up
and try to stump me to six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty back and just two shakes of a lamb's tail.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
You're on Night Side with Dan ray On Dell Youbzy
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Phrases we use every day and don't know what they mean,
and it's always pretty much always really interesting to find
out what they do mean. And that's what we're doing now.
I have a given a list of phrases that I'll
tell you the answer to, but you need to guess first.
If nobody gets them, I'll tell you at the end.
If somebody gets one, I'll cross it off. And I
(12:11):
would love if you would quizz me. I would love
it if you would google for certain phrases. Just Google
phrase origin origins and ask me, and I promise, I
promise I will not look it up. If I don't
know the answer, I'll just be wrong. Next is Alex
in Millers. Hello, my friend, Alex, Alex are you there?
Speaker 8 (12:36):
How are you doing? Bradley?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
All right?
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Just which one do you want to try?
Speaker 9 (12:43):
I've heard crazy like a fox And a friend of
mine used to where I used to work. He always
used to say, we're not here for a long time,
We're here for a good time, right, So.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
What is crazy? The way it would work with you
would be you would ask me, what's the origin of
crazy like a fox?
Speaker 8 (13:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (13:02):
What's your origin of crazy like a fox?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
You probably you don't know, so you're not gonna. I
could make something up and you would never know. But
it has to be Foxes was supposed to be wiley.
They were wiley. Foxes were wiley, and they and they
they acted in an unorthodox manner, and so someone who
is wiley an accident and unorthodox manner. But Winds would
(13:26):
be crazy like a fox. Right, there you go, boy
one for me? Thank you, Alex. Then now it's Laura
in Middleborough. How you doing, Laura?
Speaker 10 (13:42):
Hi?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Hi? There, Laura, you are on the air with Bradley
j on w b Z. Do you want to take
a shot at one of these phrases? And it's it's origin.
Speaker 11 (13:57):
Do you know what Murphy's law came from?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Ooh, ooh, this is a good one, Murphy's law, And
you know what, I'm stumped. You stumped me, all.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Right, Murphy's law.
Speaker 11 (14:10):
What I googled it was that it was named after
an engineer, Murphy, who was an aerodynamic engineer doing experiments
on zero gravitivity on humans, and he set up all
the electrodes on the humans to detect everything that would happen.
So when they shot him out and then he came back,
(14:34):
he had all these sores on his face, but nothing
was detected. So the thing is that the electrodes could
be put on one way, but all the technicians put
them on the opposite way, so nothing was detected. So
Murphy screamed out, if anything can go wrong, it would
(14:56):
be these guys. But how it came to be that
are these law? Anything can go wrong, you know, versus
the engineers that set that up. But that's how that
became law.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
If anything can go wrong, it will.
Speaker 11 (15:11):
Yeah, But he was referring to the engineer's technicians who
were setting up these electrodes.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Okay, good, So Murphy was saying to the engineers, you
guys are terrible. Okay, that's a good one.
Speaker 11 (15:32):
Night.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, I know people. I know other people in Middleboro too,
shouting out to Middleborough. Everybody in Middleborough. Hi from w
b Z, Mike and Taunton. How you doing, Mike, if you.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
Live in taught it's good inning, Jery, thanks for taking
my call. I'm gonna try a pinch your salt. Pinch
try it. I'm going to try.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
This is a very specific historical reference, so good luck.
Speaker 8 (16:01):
This is this is a guess only I did not
look up. Nope, all right, years ago, many years ago.
Salt was expensive, way back in the day. And I
think a pitch of salt may have had to do
with a person's weight. So if the scales came close,
they gave it a pitch of salt, you got leveled out.
(16:24):
And that's what he got paid. Number two, can you
tell me the definition of debt as a doornail? And
I had heard about this years ago from somewhere. I
don't know if I read it or what, but the
explanation was given.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
There.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You mean the the origin of that debt is a doornail?
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
All right, let me take a shot at it. Doornails
are particularly heavy nails. And what pet What the carpenters
or whoever you know built doors did was.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
They would you're, you're close the nail in.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Almost at the very end. Then they would bend the
nail over so it could never be used again. And
that meant the nail was dead because it could bend
and it would never be used again. And so there
you go, something dead as a door nail can't be
used again.
Speaker 8 (17:18):
Okay, that's one version. But the thing that I heard
is that a fairly rich person passed away. Back in
the medieval times, nails were expensive. Okay, the more nails
that he had in his household door supposedly showed his wealth.
(17:41):
The more nails, Oh, he was wealthy, you could afford
all these nails. Now, that's that's what I read many years.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Relate to being dead as a how does the dead
factor come in there?
Speaker 8 (17:52):
Well, the factored in is that you know, if somebody
passed a wealthy person's houses are all these heavy oak
doors that had all these doornails in it from the outside.
So he was wealthy and he you know.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But what does it have to do with dead?
Speaker 8 (18:14):
The nails just registered the person that passed away as.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well a person who's passed away. Okay, that answers my question.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
All all right, either one of us would be interesting
if somebody else came up with another thing for that
dead as a doornail. But pit your salt. I think
that had to do with measuring a person's weight in salt.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
All right, So that's not what I'm probably I'm probably
out I'm probably out there.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
But it could be used for cooking too.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
But anyway, I guess I'll answer this one. I mean,
I don't want to run out of these. But it
was an ancient guy named Pliny. He may have been
a historian, but Greek Roman times something like that.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
He was.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
He was afraid of being poisoned, so his plan was
to take a little bit of poison all the time
and try to get immune to the poison, build up
an immunity to these poisons. But the poisons tasted bad,
so with each little mini dose of poison, he would
(19:23):
use a pinch of salt along to go with the
poison and that's where pinch of salt comes from. The
thing is he According to the legend, he did build
up a tolerance and at some point I think he
tried to poison himself and was unable to because he
built up a tolerance. But p L I N Y
(19:47):
is the is the ancient the ancient person. And that's wow.
That's what I have for pinch of salt. So take
that poison with a pinch of salt.
Speaker 8 (20:01):
Okay, all right, sir, Well, I don't want to take
any more of your time. Have a great evening, sir.
Have a good weekend you too, Mike. Take care all right,
take care bye bye.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You know what the best thing is about this job,
and I love it for this is I get to
have I get to talk to you in a real way.
I get to know people. When you meet people in person,
you know, you make small talk. But somehow when you
call WBZ, I get to talk to you in a
real way about real stuff, in a way that you
(20:33):
couldn't get away with in person. And this stuff is fun.
Mike and Tonton, we'll go to Ruth and Marlborough next.
What do you think you want to take a shot
at one of these. I'll run through the list again
because some of us just join us. When we return
on WBZ, It's.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Night Side, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Thank you Elgod once again. Bradley Jay here in for Dan,
and we're having some fun with the origins of popular phrases,
words phrases that we use all the time and we
don't really know where they come from. It's quite surprising
how many come from the Middle Ages that long ago,
and a lot of them come from British naval terms
(21:22):
like son of a gun, et cetera. I can't actually
I can't tell you the son of a gun one
is probably not appropriate, but that's an example. Now we
go to Who's Next Ruth in Marlborough, Ruth and Marlborough.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Okay, Hi Ruth, Hello there.
Speaker 10 (21:39):
I like your program very much. I wanted to give
you one to see if I can stump you.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 10 (21:46):
Okay, You've got me over a barrel.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
All right, I'm thinking my wheels are turning. They're Attorney.
I've got you over a barrel. I give up. You
stumped me, I give up? What is it? Ruth?
Speaker 10 (22:10):
Uh? It's when sailors used to fight on board ship.
They try to get their opponent over a barrel on
his back where he was helpless to return the fight.
You've got me over a barrel. I can't do anything.
(22:31):
And it applies today too with you know decisions. You
know your decision is right, You've got me over a barrel.
But it originated on board ship.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I love that. I'm going to remember that forever. As
I mentioned just before, you said that a lot of
them come from British naval stuff. Right, that's probably one
of those. Right, good one, good one, you got it,
you got me, you beat me.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
Thanks.
Speaker 10 (23:00):
I like your program, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I'm gonna run through in case you just joined us,
some of the phrases that I'd like you to guess.
And I it's very cool that Ruth came in with
one for me. I like that just as much. Ones.
I don't think that we've answered nobody's got hangover or hungover?
(23:24):
Pinch of salt? We did do. I'll cross that out.
Drinking the kool Aid, deadline, bite the bullet, uh, hot shot,
Hey like hey you hot shot? True colors, Beeping Tom,
which is one of my favorites, the Whole Shebang, nest Egg,
(23:46):
Baker's Dozen, and cold shoulder, Devil's advocate, raining cats and dogs,
upper crust and wake. All right now it's Ken and
walthamure and busy Ken.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
Hi, Hi there, Yeah, I have one for you. But
would I did look up because I figure baker's dozen
with the generosity of the baking community, because you bought
twelve and they threw in an extra. But what I
looked up corrected that notion. And then it was I
(24:25):
think thirteenth century England there were heavy regulations on bread
weight and if you were caught under selling, you were
severely punished, including potentially flogging and other physical punishments. So
the bakers always threw in an extra to make sure
they were over that weight.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
That is exactly correct. Great, great, great, yep. They wanted
to play it safe. They I guess it was too
easy to rip off the customers, and so that an
edict came out, Hey, you better not cheat the customer
or it's going to be serious punishment. To avoid the punishment,
they would overdo it and make sure there's a whole
extra slice in there, and that would be the baker's
(25:07):
doesn't great? Great? Great? Now what do you got from me?
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Have you talked?
Speaker 7 (25:12):
I called in Lee. So I don't know if this
has come up, but mind your p's and q's. Has
anybody bought that up yet?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Boy, I'm feeling pretty dumb tonight, but I still love
trying mind your p's and q's. Okay, So p's and q's,
I'm guessing looked maybe they looked very similar. Say, you
would have to pay extra attention to the P and
the Q. And uh, I guess that means then that's
(25:40):
why the similarity of the P and Q requiring extra attention.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
So that's at least partial credits. But I'm I'm gonna
tell this quickly. So when I went to Buckman's tavern
on a tour in Lexington, they told me that back
in the eighteenth century, when patrons bought ale, they would
(26:08):
buy it in quantities of punts and quartz. Oh and
they used to, you know, keep things on the tracket,
like on the wall or on a chalkboard or whatever.
And if they started building up too many without paying,
they had to mind their peas and accues.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Oh, so pay attention to how much you've been drinking?
Speaker 12 (26:27):
Right?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Exactly what I said was wrong completely? Then not?
Speaker 7 (26:33):
Well, there's a however, to give me just another thirties.
So I learned that maybe thirty or forty years ago
when I was a young man. Just in the past year,
I would I went to the I think it's the
Baltimore Museum of Industry where they had the printing presses
and how all those you know, they used to type
(26:54):
sad and all of that, And they said, you know,
and you used to do it. Have to do a
min mirror image, right, and a P and a Q
is a mirror image of each other. So just like
you were saying that the pressers had to that's I
don't even know if that's the right term. But when
they were doing the type setting, they had to mind
(27:15):
their piece and cues because it was very easy for
them to mix things up with those letters, particularly because
they Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
So I feel a little better about myself.
Speaker 7 (27:26):
Well not only that, but they told that story. I
told them the Buckman Tavern story, and they told me
I was wrong, that that's not true.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
But how do they know it's not true? These people,
how do they know it's not true?
Speaker 7 (27:39):
I don't know, you know what, I think they also
thought the Ravens are better than the Patriots, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
That's the credibility problem right there.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
But anyway, there's a lot of fun and I'm really
enjoying the show.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Thank you very nice. Everybody in Waltham looks like I
have time for another one before the break. That's fantastic.
We have Pelvis in Middleton. Hello Pelvis, Hello Pelvis. Oh,
Pelvis not there, Well, we have time for Jack and
Dorchester then Hi Jack.
Speaker 8 (28:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (28:13):
Doesn't peeping Tom come from? I don't know whether it's
a myth or what, but Lady could dive of Ah.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, how much do you want to do? You know
the whole thing. Give me as much as you can.
Speaker 12 (28:30):
It's something about her husband was taxing the townspeople to well,
Lady could dive a thought too much, so she wrote
through the town naked.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
On a horse.
Speaker 12 (28:45):
And I supposedly know we were supposed to peep, except
for this guy named Tom who peeked.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yes. Then you have that, you have the broad stokes
of it getting real, getting a little more granular. There
was Lady good Diver, and she lived. She wasn't an
English noble woman, and she was married to a guy
named Earl Leffrick L E O F R I C.
They lived in country Coventry, excuse me, Coventry, England. And
(29:16):
you're right. Taxes were high, and the husband said, all right,
if you right through town naked a lower taxes And
the deal was that the all the shutters in the
town would be shut and no one would look. However,
as you say, this guy named Tom peaked or peeked,
(29:38):
if you will, ye. And so not only not only
did he you know, he got he didn't just get
in trouble. The whole thing was anybody that peaks is
going to either go blind or or blind or something.
But but Tom, he he peeped, and he went blind.
I guess.
Speaker 8 (29:58):
Okay, all right, real quick.
Speaker 12 (30:00):
Are you ever in touch with Joe Matthew.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yes? I actually got a text from him last night.
He actually listened to the show last night.
Speaker 8 (30:10):
Oh cool, Good time to shout out to.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Joe since you brought it up. Shout out to Joe Man.
Speaker 12 (30:16):
Yeah, he's on vacation. I take it any right, Okay,
good hearing from you again, and I'll try and get
in touched next week.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Sure, thanks very much. That's great. So is there anything
else with the peeping Tom?
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah there is. You might ask, why Tom? Why do
they choose the name Tom because back then, this is
eleventh century geez, that's like ten sixty six, the Battle
of Hastings, that's the eleventh century, same basic time, and
back then Tom, the name Tom was associated with fools,
(30:53):
hence the name Tom foolery. And in Tom, Dick and
Harry that's saying Tom is the fool. So I bet
you learned. I bet you didn't know that. No, you do,
But that Lady Good, I have a Story is always
That's one of my favorites, and I always think of Good.
(31:14):
I have a chocolate's when I hear that story, and
I love chocolate and I have to get some. During
the break, we'll go to Blackston. It's just Blaxton here.
I don't know that's Blackstone, but either way, we'll go
to chip next.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
On WBZ, it's Night Side with Ray on wb Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Here we are, It's Nightside with Dan Ray Bradley j
for Dan in next week too. I don't think I
told you that, but there it is. I guess some
folks know, some folks don't, but it's true. The rumor
is true. And we're looking at the origins of phrases.
I've given out a bunch and I did it just recently.
I'll do it soon again, but I'm not going to
(31:56):
run through it right now. Chip in Blackstone wants to
either try to give me the origin of one of
those phrases or maybe stump me on one. I'm the
zero for three by the way, actually I'm I guess
one and a half for three. Chip.
Speaker 13 (32:12):
How you doing, I'm good, Bradley, how are you? Did
anyone give you the cold shoulder? Yet?
Speaker 2 (32:20):
No go for it. What's the origin of the phrase
cold shoulder?
Speaker 13 (32:24):
Well? I did google it and it says it has
been said that is the story of a bad guest
breaking hospitality rules and all the chaos that broke out
because of that. This suggests just how important hospitality was
in the past, so it's no surprise that a guest
would be received with a grand meal in the Middle Ages. However,
(32:45):
what happens when they overstay their welcome They would be
served leftovers, such as a cold shoulder of mutton from
the previous night's dinner, leading to this memorable phrase.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yeah, that's right, so back then maybe even now if McCoy, Yeah,
I think it is too, that's what I that's what
I understand. So if anyone serves you, you know cold,
you know, some cold mutton. There's not a lot of
mutton out there these days, but I guess the modern
version of it, if somebody gives you some leftovers, you
(33:18):
got to figure you've overstayed, you're welcome, or maybe they
just don't have anything else. I mean, I wouldn't have
anything else in my house. I would have. You know,
you'd be getting leftovers. You'd be getting leftover craft macaroni
and cheese.
Speaker 13 (33:33):
Oh yeah, good one.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
You haven't. You don't happen to have one for me,
do you?
Speaker 13 (33:37):
Well? I kind of gave you a hint. You know
what the real McCoy is.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Oh well, okay, well they must have been fake McCoy's
in order to have need a real one. And McCoy's.
There's McCoy's and hat Fields. That's only McCoy I know.
So let's see, I'm gonna guess that one of the
hats fields killed by accident, someone that was not a
(34:07):
McCoy thinking thinking it was McCoy, like it was an
imposter or something.
Speaker 13 (34:13):
And you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
If not get the real McCoy, that's my guess.
Speaker 13 (34:19):
You know. I googled that one earlier, but I lost
the answer. It was kind of long.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Well maybe somebody else will know.
Speaker 13 (34:29):
Okay, here it is okay. Most likely originated from the
high quality lubricating device for steam engines invented by Elijah McCoy.
Engineers would specifically request the device, known as the Real
McCoy system to avoid inferior copies.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I love that I was. I was very, very.
Speaker 13 (34:50):
Wrong, but it could be synonymous with anything genuine and authentic.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That's great. I love to know that. I didn't know that.
Now I know that. Now we all know that.
Speaker 13 (35:00):
We also know that popped in my head I was
driving home. Listen the geez, I wonder if you've got
the real McCoy there.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
That's a great one and show that's right. Very good ship.
Thank you so much, Thank you talking to welcome. Feel
free to call in. I hope, I hope the experience
of calling in was fun for you, is fun for you.
And I know that I know that it's nerve wracking
because I've been on the radio most of my life.
(35:26):
I've been a professional radio person since nineteen eighty one,
and still if I call a talk show I'm nervous.
It's so it's strange, but I really empathize with not
wanting to call in. But I think if you do
it once and you have a nice experience like that.
(35:46):
Now we all know Chip, I know Chip, you know
it's me or pals calling any time Chip. But if
you were a person who's really really nervous about calling
in and having a conversation, there is an additional option
and to include more folks, folks that you know don't
really feel comfortable calling it. And that's this. It's a
(36:08):
cool way for you to be part of the Nightside
broadcast by using the talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app. Now,
if you, if you are comfortable using an app, and
many of you are, you open the iHeartRadio app, you
download it, you open it while you're listening to Nightside
Live on WBZ News Radio ten thirty and in the
(36:30):
upper right hand corner will be very clearly this microphone.
You tap on the microphone and talk your message into it.
And it is that simple. You just hit the red
microphone button the top right corner of the app while
listening to Nightside. We get your message and we may
play it. So I would ergeer not to do that
(36:53):
instead of calling. But if it's a way, the only
way that you're comfortable with being part of the program,
then go for it. We had somebody do it a
couple nights ago and I loved it. Sound quality was
really good, so thank you for that. Let me run
through these and maybe I'll even give you one. Give
(37:16):
you one before the top of the hoar. Here are
the sayings that I'm urging you to take a guess
at or even as you've noticed, it's fine if you
google him, because the point is to have fun and
actually maybe learn a little something. So it's a take
home quiz. It's a it's an open book quiz. You
can google it here. We did Cold Shoulder. We did
(37:37):
Peeping Tom. Pep Tom was one of my favorites. Devil's Advocate,
that's very specific, Devil's Advocate raining cats and dogs. Also
very specific. Upper crust that's kind of a science y one,
believe it or not. And wake the term wake like
(38:00):
we held a wake for the deceased, Still no one
on hungover. We did dead as a door nail, drinking
the kool Aid. Oh boy, that guy's drinking the kool aid.
Oh wow, you're drinking the kool aid, meaning you're believing,
(38:22):
you're believing that, you're just absorbing that without questioning. You
just drinking the kool aid. Where's that come from? Deadline, bite,
the bullet, hotshot, true colors, the whole shebang. Nest egg.
(38:46):
You can figure out the nest egg, I think, and
we did. Baker's doesn't okay? And I'd love to have
you stump me with something. So far, I've only gotten
one and a half of one, but it's fun. Six
one two six one seven two five four ten thirty
is the number. Six one seven two five four ten thirty.
(39:08):
By the way, if if you're into travel and you're
looking for a destination, thinking of something, you might try
the Bradley j Travel channel on YouTube. There's over two
hundred videos there of a lot of destinations, all the
main ones, all the popular ones, but there are other
ones like Romania, Montenegro, Croatia. That's Bradley Jay Travel on YouTube.
(39:31):
Subscribe now this
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