November 26, 2025 • 20 mins
From sailors’ ropes to Paris bartenders, our language gets tipsy in this Borrowed Words episode. We highlight popular drinking words and phrases on the biggest bar night of the year!
Sources:
Snopes.com , Factcheck.com, OED.com, Dictionary.com, Learnreligions.com, phrases.org, English.stackexchange.com, therealdill.com, Silvercircledistillery.com
E-Mail the show at BorrowedBonesPodcast@proton.me
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:14):
Hello everyone.
SPEAKER_00 (00:15):
Hello.
SPEAKER_01 (00:16):
I'm Sarah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
And I'm Cole.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
And you're listening to Borrowed Words, an episode
where we break down theetymology of words and phrases.
SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
Oh, some of these episodes.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Yes.
I normally wait a few months inbetween to do these episodes
because not that long ago.
Yeah.
I but I figured with theholidays, with the holiday
season.
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
The worst time of the year.
The best day of the year isDecember 26th.
Because it's the furthest awayfrom Christmas.
SPEAKER_01 (00:51):
I like the holidays because I like the energy that
people have in in the good way,like how people are more giving
and working in the serviceindustry.
I do see it.
It's a great time.
People tip more, they're nicer,they're feeling better, they are
more sympathetic.
They ask what you're doing forthe holidays and everything.
(01:11):
And it is nice.
There is, of course, a negativeside to it with capitalism
culture and all of that.
I do refuse to dive into that.
Every year I try to give lessand less gifts, honestly.
And my family is pretty good.
Like we're normal about it.
Like maybe one gift to eachperson and focus more on the
(01:31):
youngins, the kids.
But yeah, I like the holidayseason.
SPEAKER_00 (01:35):
I don't.
SPEAKER_01 (01:36):
I don't mind it.
I like the lights.
I like the decor.
That's really what I like.
SPEAKER_00 (01:41):
I loathe all of it.
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
Yeah.
I like the music.
SPEAKER_00 (01:45):
I hate it.
I wish I could just go intohibernation.
SPEAKER_01 (01:49):
Barbara Streisand, her jingle bells.
It's my favorite.
SPEAKER_00 (01:54):
Mariah Carey.
SPEAKER_01 (01:56):
Oh, I don't.
I can't do that.
No.
That's too much.
Barbara is my go-to Christmasalbum.
I love it.
She switched it up.
She didn't keep it traditional.
SPEAKER_00 (02:09):
Mark Lanigan had a Christmas record, but it was
like six songs that you neverthink of as Christmas Carol.
I mean, they're like old, oldlike they're the ones that
aren't popular.
You don't hear them like atfucking Target playing jingle
bells.
They were like songs about womenhiding their firstborn babies
from King Herod on Christmas Eveso that sh kids aren't killed
(02:30):
when Herod sent his troops tokill anyone the night that Jesus
was allegedly born.
SPEAKER_01 (02:36):
I've never, never heard of this.
Wow.
No.
Can we listen to that?
SPEAKER_00 (02:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Okay.
All right.
That sounds good to me.
I'll bring Barbara and you bringwhat's his name again?
SPEAKER_00 (02:47):
Lanigan.
Mark Lanigan.
SPEAKER_01 (02:48):
Oh, Mark Lanigan.
I forgot.
I do.
I just forgot who you said.
SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
So yeah, okay.
Because of the holiday seasonand how hectic it gets and weird
and crazy.
There's a lot going on, a lot ofvisiting, a lot of driving, a
lot of traveling.
I figured I would just throw oneof these in there because
they're easier, they're lighter.
I don't do as much research withthem.
We're looser with our form here.
I just wanted to ease myselfthrough this season.
(03:15):
I'll probably do a Christmas oneas well.
I just like it.
It's easy.
So the borrowed words we aregoing to look at today all
pertain to drinking.
SPEAKER_00 (03:28):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
And I thought of this because this month we are
celebrating Thanksgiving here inAmerica.
SPEAKER_00 (03:35):
Ironically.
SPEAKER_01 (03:36):
We all have thoughts about it, and I understand.
SPEAKER_00 (03:38):
I always wonder if I know he was sincere because
honest Abe, but when Abe createdThanksgiving in the midst of the
Civil War, I'm like, was hebeing a little satirical?
Yeah.
It's time to give thanks.
As our brothers and sons arecoming home with their limbs
ripped off.
SPEAKER_01 (03:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
Fighting people who want to own other people.
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:01):
Let's be thankful for what?
SPEAKER_01 (04:03):
Exactly.
So in the spirit of that, Ithought we would all drink.
Wednesday, the day beforeThanksgiving.
Thanksgiving always falls on aThursday.
The Wednesday before isconsidered the biggest bar night
of the year.
It's thought that because whenpeople come home for Christmas,
they need to be on their bestbehavior.
(04:23):
Christmas is more of a religiousholiday.
And then on Easter, same thing,a religious holiday.
No one really wants to be drunkor hungover around grandma.
SPEAKER_00 (04:33):
It's also the first time a lot of college students
coming back home.
SPEAKER_01 (04:38):
Oh, you're right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:39):
They leave in late August, early September for
college.
It's their first time back.
So they're all coming togetherthat that Wednesday night at the
bar.
SPEAKER_01 (04:48):
You're right.
Yep.
That's also a factor.
SPEAKER_00 (04:51):
Influences making it the busiest bar night.
SPEAKER_01 (04:53):
Yes.
And it really is the busiest barnight of the year.
It is always hectic and crazy.
So I wanted to honor that and dowords and phrases that are
within the drinking culture.
All right.
We are starting with the phrasethree sheets to the wind.
Use it in a sentence like, oh,she's three sheets to the wind.
(05:17):
She's so drunk.
She's falling over.
She's three sheets to the wind.
She's dancing on tables.
He might be dancing on tables.
I don't know.
Do you have any thoughts ofwhere it might have come from?
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
Well, I'm picturing, I don't know how.
Let me work through this, butI'm picturing like linen hanging
on a clothesline.
Literally, like bed sheets on aclothesline in the wind blowing.
Maybe someone's stumbling drunkand stumbles through bed sheets
that are hanging, and they'rewalking through like a ghost
(05:48):
with like bedsheets justhaphazardly hanging on them.
SPEAKER_01 (05:51):
I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
That's my thought.
Like, oh, he's you know, walkingthrough clotheslines.
The visual I have in my head isthe first night of the living
dead, the zombie walking throughand just like he runs through a
clothesline.
There's no sheets on it, butlike and he angrily just like
pulls it down because it's justin his way.
That's kind of what I'mpicturing.
Like a stumble-down drunkstumbling into sheets being
hanging.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Not a bad thought.
It's not what it is, but that'snot a bad thought.
I also thought like clothesline,like sheets hanging.
It's about ships when I waslearning about this.
There are these sheets on shipsthat are not the sails.
Yeah.
They're actually ropes orchains.
Okay.
The ropes or chain are holdingon to the sails.
(06:36):
They're they're tying thecorners down.
There's always three sheets thatare tying the corners down.
If the ropes are loose andblowing about in the wind, then
that means that the ship's sailswill flap about and the boat
will lurch and rock around likea drunken sailor.
So you have the the originalsuper original version was three
(06:59):
sheets in the wind and not tothe wind.
But we say to the wind more now.
Yeah.
But originally was three sheetsin the wind, and that kind of
that makes more sense.
Imagine some chains flapflapping around in the wind or
some ropes flying around.
SPEAKER_00 (07:13):
Gotcha.
I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01 (07:16):
Yeah.
Well, after that, on Thursdaymorning, you're probably gonna
have a hangover.
SPEAKER_00 (07:22):
Oh, is that our second word of the day?
SPEAKER_01 (07:25):
Yes.
If you do not know what ahangover is, lucky you.
It is a very awful feeling afteryou have had too much to drink
the night before.
You probably have a headache,you're dehydrated, you're shaky,
you're dizzy, you are maybevomiting.
Who knows?
Maybe run into the bathroom.
I don't know.
There's a lot of different waysto feel bad.
(07:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:47):
More ways to feel bad than there are to feel good.
Yes.
What does that say aboutreality?
Anyway, sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (07:52):
But drinking makes you forget.
SPEAKER_00 (07:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:55):
Drink to forget.
SPEAKER_00 (07:57):
The anesthesia of reality.
SPEAKER_01 (07:58):
Oh god.
So, yes, a very popular thoughtfor hangover.
Oh, wait, sorry.
I didn't give you a chance toguess.
Do you have a thought of wherehangover comes from?
SPEAKER_00 (08:08):
I always just took it literally as the alcohol or
the effects of the previous dayare hanging over into the
current day.
SPEAKER_01 (08:17):
Yes.
That that isn't what most yes.
SPEAKER_00 (08:20):
Yeah, it just is what it is.
SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
Yep.
But they it wasn't alwaysreferencing drinking, though.
It could mean anything, like mywork is hanging over from
yesterday.
It could mean anything.
However, I did see that a lot ofpeople think that it comes from
the Victorian age in England, inLondon, in kind of the more
slummy areas.
(08:43):
People would get drunk.
A lot of them, a lot of thesources I found reference
sailors being drunkspecifically.
I don't know why, but maybe Ithink they spent a lot of their
money at the bars and saloons.
So, you know, servicemen.
Yeah.
And they would get drunk andthey would go to these houses
and they would rent a space tostand and hang on a line.
(09:06):
So like a rope would be hungfrom one wall to the other.
SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
And you would just slabs of meat.
Yes.
Like a subway car, the thing youhold.
SPEAKER_01 (09:15):
You would just stand and you would hang on to that.
And those did really exist.
Um, they would rent, they youwould rent a little space for
two pennies, and you would justhope that you don't fall down
and you would just hold on tothat rope.
So you would hang over the ropeas you're drunk.
SPEAKER_00 (09:30):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (09:32):
There were quite a bit of people on one side of the
fence that said, no, it's notfrom this.
And I couldn't really see anyoneadvocating that it was from
this.
They just said we think it'sfrom this, but then they read
that the Oxford EnglishDictionary said that it was not
this.
So I'm leaning towards no, I'mleaning towards it's from just
(09:53):
hangover means to hang over.
And then we eventually used itfor drinking.
But I did see that as we startedusing it as like a hangover from
alcohol, it was around the sametime as the Victorian era.
I mean, it was the same timeframe.
So I I just wonder if maybepeople associated it with
(10:16):
drinking because of hanging overa rope.
SPEAKER_00 (10:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
But hangover was already used normally or
regularly.
SPEAKER_00 (10:25):
Yeah, so it's so two sources of maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (10:29):
That's just what I want to believe.
I didn't see anyone say that.
I'm just putting two thingstogether because I saw dates.
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
Sounds like it could be accurate.
SPEAKER_01 (10:38):
That's just what I'm thinking.
If you have a hangover, in orderto get rid of it, someone might
tell you to have a little bit ofthe hair of the dog that bit
you.
This is our next phrase.
unknown (10:53):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (10:54):
Do you know what this means?
SPEAKER_00 (10:55):
Yeah, keep drinking.
SPEAKER_01 (10:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:57):
Yeah.
Have more alcohol.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
The hair of the dog that bit you have more alcohol
to cure that hangover.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:03):
I mean, I don't know when it started, but it I mean,
the metaphor is prettyself-explanatory.
Like the dog bit you, and so youbite it back.
Keep going.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:13):
All it really does is delay the hangover, though.
SPEAKER_01 (11:16):
I don't know.
I mean, it's medicalprofessionals say this doesn't
help.
It it there's no way it does.
Why would it?
You're just adding more.
SPEAKER_00 (11:23):
Yeah, it'll get you drunk again.
And then you stop feeling bad, Iguess, because you're kind of
numb.
You just it just delays thehangover.
SPEAKER_01 (11:32):
Well, anyway, this isn't about if that works or
not.
This is about the phrase hair ofthe dog that bit you.
Because I wanted to know whythis was even said.
Like, did people get bitten bydogs at one point?
Like, what why?
Why a dog?
Why hair?
Why this?
And what I found was that it wasadvised if you get bitten by a
(11:52):
dog, get some hair from that dogand put it in the wound, and
that will help heal.
SPEAKER_00 (11:59):
I mean, it's in the same, I guess, general, I mean,
I'm being liberal with this, butin the same general wheelhouse
of inoculation, I guess.
SPEAKER_01 (12:10):
There was also still some thought of um what I found
to be called sympathetic magicas well at that time, where
something could cause you harmif you have something of that
person or it could help bebetter if you have something of
that person or that thing.
So I don't know much aboutmagic, but there's some magic
(12:31):
that people still kind ofthought at that time existed,
and this helped.
SPEAKER_00 (12:36):
It's also a little homeopathic of like a little of
the thing that hurts you willsomehow make you better.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
Yeah.
All of this started in like theMiddle Ages, like the 14, 1500s.
So we don't know exactly when itturned into an alcohol thing,
but we know that it there ispeople way back when really did
think getting hair from the dogthat bit you would help cure
you.
And of course, alcohol hurts, itcan hurt the next day.
(13:05):
And so it just makes sense thatthey shift it over to that.
Whenever I have a hangover and Ido follow that old cure of the
hair of the dog that bit you,sometimes I decide to have a
bloody Mary.
And I wanted to know where thename Bloody Mary came from.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
I don't know exactly.
I know, I mean, I before thedrink, obviously, I heard of the
like childhood game of, youknow, you go be in front of a
dark mirror and you say BloodyMary however many times, and you
know, you'll see a ghostlyfigure in the mirror, allegedly.
Oh yeah.
That's yeah, I think it was somemyth figure, you know, some
(13:47):
ghost story.
Bloody Mary killed someone.
I don't know.
That's all I know.
And I assume the drink is calledthat because it looks like
blood.
SPEAKER_01 (13:55):
Kind of.
Oh, it has nothing to do withthe scary Bloody Mary in the
mirror thing.
This is this is separate, but itdoes have to do with blood.
Okay.
So we're starting back in Parisin the 1920s.
There's a bar called Harry's NewYork Bar.
This must have been with likethe lost generation of Hinway
(14:20):
and Stein and Fitzgerald andHarry's opened in 1911 after an
American jockey had a New Yorkbar dismantled and shipped to
Paris.
Oh.
I thought that was sointeresting.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:36):
Turn for the Statue of Liberty.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:39):
That's how we should return it.
SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
No, that's what we could say.
That's the exchange.
Like the Statue of Liberty, wegave them a New York bar.
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
Yeah, okay.
Well, the New York style barbecame an American destination
during the prohibition era.
And then around 1920, people whoescaped the Russian Revolution
arrived in Paris bringing vodkawith them.
Okay.
So we're getting this.
It's right.
You know, it's starting tohappen.
There was bartender.
We're gonna call him Petebecause that's what he goes by,
(15:07):
but it's a French name.
I don't want to try to say, butPete.
And he's a bartender at Harry's,and he doesn't know what to do
with this tasteless vodka, buthe also is seeing this new, not
new, but like newer-ish, kind ofcool ketchup um tomato sauce,
not ketchup, but like a tomatosauce.
And he decided to zhuz it up,add some things, do a little
(15:30):
this, do a little that, and thenadd the vodka, and lo and
behold, we have a bloody Mary.
SPEAKER_00 (15:34):
I like that you described vodka as tasteless
because I've always been like,it is tasteless.
And people are like, I love thetaste of vodka.
I'm like, I don't think you liketo drink.
There's a reason like teenagegirls like vodka the most
because it doesn't taste likeanything.
It's like when old men are like,Oh, vodka is so great.
I'm like, okay, have a daiquiri.
SPEAKER_01 (15:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
It's wait a minute, daiquiri's not cut that.
That's not the right no.
unknown (15:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:59):
Daiquai's rum.
SPEAKER_00 (16:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:01):
Yeah.
I'll cut that, don't worry.
unknown (16:02):
No.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:03):
Um, yeah, I I do think for me, vodka does have a
taste.
I don't like it, but I know thatit's meant to be tasteless, and
most people don't taste it.
Like it's not, it is meant toblend in with drinks, and yeah,
I I just don't like the taste ofit.
SPEAKER_00 (16:17):
Yeah, it's like on all the dumb rankings of the the
taste, the blind, you know,Pepsi challenge for vodka.
I'm like, it all tastes likenothing.
It all tastes like nothing.
SPEAKER_01 (16:26):
The point of vodka is to taste like nothing.
So the best vodka should betasteless.
So yeah.
Anyway, moving on, Pete wouldend up moving to America.
I think he moved to New York,and he would bring the Bloody
Mary drink with him.
He didn't have the name BloodyMary, though.
He actually called it RedSnapper.
SPEAKER_00 (16:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (16:46):
Yeah.
So then the story goes that itstarted to be called Bloody Mary
after Queen Mary Tudor and herbloody reign against the
Protestants in England in the1500s.
SPEAKER_00 (16:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (16:58):
Yeah, because it looks like blood.
SPEAKER_00 (17:01):
All right.
Yeah.
It seems like a stretch that anAmerican audience would care so
much about an antiquated war inanother country to name a I
don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (17:10):
I don't know.
Yes.
I I'm not sure.
There there's there's multipletheories of where the name
Bloody Mary comes from.
The most popular is the Queen,Bloody Mary, which I think is
probably just because it's fun.
SPEAKER_00 (17:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:23):
Like I don't I don't really know.
This is the final theory that Ifound of where the name Bloody
Mary came from.
And I I want it to be this.
This is what I want.
Okay.
unknown (17:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:34):
There was an ad in the 1930s, in the 1930s, that
claimed the drink Bloody Marywas named after a friend of an
entertainer, and the friend'sname was Mary, and Mary worked
at a saloon bar called TheBucket of Blood in Chicago.
SPEAKER_00 (17:52):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (17:53):
And I did not look up to verify if the Bucket of
Blood is an actual bar or not.
I don't know for sure because Iwant this to be true.
SPEAKER_00 (18:00):
I've heard it referenced historically, like in
songs of the era.
Okay.
So it makes sense.
So yeah.
Yeah.
It sounds like yeah, I've heardit referenced in songs and
literature.
SPEAKER_01 (18:14):
Yeah, so I want it to be true.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:16):
So that's what I want it to be called.
I I were that's where I want itto be from.
It's from the bucket of blood,and some entertainer wanted his
friend Mary to be named afterthis.
Yeah.
I love it.
So and that's all I have.
I just wanted to kind of do afew.
SPEAKER_00 (18:35):
Oh, there's not.
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
No, that's it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
These are only like 20 or 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00 (18:40):
Yeah.
unknown (18:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:41):
Yeah.
That's it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:42):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (18:43):
Just a nice quick one, something easy.
I am going to release this oneon the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving.
So I thought it'd be kind offun.
SPEAKER_00 (18:50):
Isn't is this week Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_01 (18:53):
No.
Thanksgiving is on the 27th thisyear.
SPEAKER_00 (18:58):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (18:59):
It's the third Thursday, but it's also the last
Thursday of Jimi Hendrix's deathday.
Right?
Is it the last one?
SPEAKER_00 (19:07):
It's always the last or fourth Thursday.
Is it the fourth or third?
Fourth.
I believe.
SPEAKER_01 (19:13):
It is on November 27th.
SPEAKER_00 (19:15):
That's always the fourth Thursday.
SPEAKER_01 (19:16):
Damn it.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:18):
Why would I think that?
SPEAKER_00 (19:19):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (19:20):
That's weird.
Okay, the fourth third,whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (19:22):
It's Hendrix's birth date this year, not death date.
I said that earlier.
SPEAKER_01 (19:26):
But yes, I wanted to do some bar highlights on the
night before Thanksgiving.
Hope everyone has fun out there.
Um, I will not be going out asmy feet are still broken from my
surgery.
So that's fun.
I get to miss that.
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
She's on the mend.
SPEAKER_01 (19:43):
I'm getting better.
It's not so bad.
But yeah, like, follow, check usout on Instagram, all the
things.
So yeah.
Happy holidays, maybe.
SPEAKER_00 (19:53):
Have the holiday you voted for.
unknown (19:56):
What?
SPEAKER_00 (19:56):
I don't know.
That's just what I my responseto everyone today.
In general, about like what doyou do with the holiday?
Because I'm expecting family tobe starting inviting us to
things and that's just me or myresponse to anyone who invites
me to something.
SPEAKER_01 (20:09):
Okay.
unknown (20:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:11):
Yeah.
So bye.
SPEAKER_00 (20:13):
Bye.
Hello everyone.
SPEAKER_00 (00:15):
Hello.
SPEAKER_01 (00:16):
I'm Sarah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
And I'm Cole.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
And you're listening to Borrowed Words, an episode
where we break down theetymology of words and phrases.
SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
Oh, some of these episodes.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Yes.
I normally wait a few months inbetween to do these episodes
because not that long ago.
Yeah.
I but I figured with theholidays, with the holiday
season.
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
The worst time of the year.
The best day of the year isDecember 26th.
Because it's the furthest awayfrom Christmas.
SPEAKER_01 (00:51):
I like the holidays because I like the energy that
people have in in the good way,like how people are more giving
and working in the serviceindustry.
I do see it.
It's a great time.
People tip more, they're nicer,they're feeling better, they are
more sympathetic.
They ask what you're doing forthe holidays and everything.
(01:11):
And it is nice.
There is, of course, a negativeside to it with capitalism
culture and all of that.
I do refuse to dive into that.
Every year I try to give lessand less gifts, honestly.
And my family is pretty good.
Like we're normal about it.
Like maybe one gift to eachperson and focus more on the
(01:31):
youngins, the kids.
But yeah, I like the holidayseason.
SPEAKER_00 (01:35):
I don't.
SPEAKER_01 (01:36):
I don't mind it.
I like the lights.
I like the decor.
That's really what I like.
SPEAKER_00 (01:41):
I loathe all of it.
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
Yeah.
I like the music.
SPEAKER_00 (01:45):
I hate it.
I wish I could just go intohibernation.
SPEAKER_01 (01:49):
Barbara Streisand, her jingle bells.
It's my favorite.
SPEAKER_00 (01:54):
Mariah Carey.
SPEAKER_01 (01:56):
Oh, I don't.
I can't do that.
No.
That's too much.
Barbara is my go-to Christmasalbum.
I love it.
She switched it up.
She didn't keep it traditional.
SPEAKER_00 (02:09):
Mark Lanigan had a Christmas record, but it was
like six songs that you neverthink of as Christmas Carol.
I mean, they're like old, oldlike they're the ones that
aren't popular.
You don't hear them like atfucking Target playing jingle
bells.
They were like songs about womenhiding their firstborn babies
from King Herod on Christmas Eveso that sh kids aren't killed
(02:30):
when Herod sent his troops tokill anyone the night that Jesus
was allegedly born.
SPEAKER_01 (02:36):
I've never, never heard of this.
Wow.
No.
Can we listen to that?
SPEAKER_00 (02:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Okay.
All right.
That sounds good to me.
I'll bring Barbara and you bringwhat's his name again?
SPEAKER_00 (02:47):
Lanigan.
Mark Lanigan.
SPEAKER_01 (02:48):
Oh, Mark Lanigan.
I forgot.
I do.
I just forgot who you said.
SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
So yeah, okay.
Because of the holiday seasonand how hectic it gets and weird
and crazy.
There's a lot going on, a lot ofvisiting, a lot of driving, a
lot of traveling.
I figured I would just throw oneof these in there because
they're easier, they're lighter.
I don't do as much research withthem.
We're looser with our form here.
I just wanted to ease myselfthrough this season.
(03:15):
I'll probably do a Christmas oneas well.
I just like it.
It's easy.
So the borrowed words we aregoing to look at today all
pertain to drinking.
SPEAKER_00 (03:28):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
And I thought of this because this month we are
celebrating Thanksgiving here inAmerica.
SPEAKER_00 (03:35):
Ironically.
SPEAKER_01 (03:36):
We all have thoughts about it, and I understand.
SPEAKER_00 (03:38):
I always wonder if I know he was sincere because
honest Abe, but when Abe createdThanksgiving in the midst of the
Civil War, I'm like, was hebeing a little satirical?
Yeah.
It's time to give thanks.
As our brothers and sons arecoming home with their limbs
ripped off.
SPEAKER_01 (03:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
Fighting people who want to own other people.
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:01):
Let's be thankful for what?
SPEAKER_01 (04:03):
Exactly.
So in the spirit of that, Ithought we would all drink.
Wednesday, the day beforeThanksgiving.
Thanksgiving always falls on aThursday.
The Wednesday before isconsidered the biggest bar night
of the year.
It's thought that because whenpeople come home for Christmas,
they need to be on their bestbehavior.
(04:23):
Christmas is more of a religiousholiday.
And then on Easter, same thing,a religious holiday.
No one really wants to be drunkor hungover around grandma.
SPEAKER_00 (04:33):
It's also the first time a lot of college students
coming back home.
SPEAKER_01 (04:38):
Oh, you're right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:39):
They leave in late August, early September for
college.
It's their first time back.
So they're all coming togetherthat that Wednesday night at the
bar.
SPEAKER_01 (04:48):
You're right.
Yep.
That's also a factor.
SPEAKER_00 (04:51):
Influences making it the busiest bar night.
SPEAKER_01 (04:53):
Yes.
And it really is the busiest barnight of the year.
It is always hectic and crazy.
So I wanted to honor that and dowords and phrases that are
within the drinking culture.
All right.
We are starting with the phrasethree sheets to the wind.
Use it in a sentence like, oh,she's three sheets to the wind.
(05:17):
She's so drunk.
She's falling over.
She's three sheets to the wind.
She's dancing on tables.
He might be dancing on tables.
I don't know.
Do you have any thoughts ofwhere it might have come from?
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
Well, I'm picturing, I don't know how.
Let me work through this, butI'm picturing like linen hanging
on a clothesline.
Literally, like bed sheets on aclothesline in the wind blowing.
Maybe someone's stumbling drunkand stumbles through bed sheets
that are hanging, and they'rewalking through like a ghost
(05:48):
with like bedsheets justhaphazardly hanging on them.
SPEAKER_01 (05:51):
I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
That's my thought.
Like, oh, he's you know, walkingthrough clotheslines.
The visual I have in my head isthe first night of the living
dead, the zombie walking throughand just like he runs through a
clothesline.
There's no sheets on it, butlike and he angrily just like
pulls it down because it's justin his way.
That's kind of what I'mpicturing.
Like a stumble-down drunkstumbling into sheets being
hanging.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Not a bad thought.
It's not what it is, but that'snot a bad thought.
I also thought like clothesline,like sheets hanging.
It's about ships when I waslearning about this.
There are these sheets on shipsthat are not the sails.
Yeah.
They're actually ropes orchains.
Okay.
The ropes or chain are holdingon to the sails.
(06:36):
They're they're tying thecorners down.
There's always three sheets thatare tying the corners down.
If the ropes are loose andblowing about in the wind, then
that means that the ship's sailswill flap about and the boat
will lurch and rock around likea drunken sailor.
So you have the the originalsuper original version was three
(06:59):
sheets in the wind and not tothe wind.
But we say to the wind more now.
Yeah.
But originally was three sheetsin the wind, and that kind of
that makes more sense.
Imagine some chains flapflapping around in the wind or
some ropes flying around.
SPEAKER_00 (07:13):
Gotcha.
I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01 (07:16):
Yeah.
Well, after that, on Thursdaymorning, you're probably gonna
have a hangover.
SPEAKER_00 (07:22):
Oh, is that our second word of the day?
SPEAKER_01 (07:25):
Yes.
If you do not know what ahangover is, lucky you.
It is a very awful feeling afteryou have had too much to drink
the night before.
You probably have a headache,you're dehydrated, you're shaky,
you're dizzy, you are maybevomiting.
Who knows?
Maybe run into the bathroom.
I don't know.
There's a lot of different waysto feel bad.
(07:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:47):
More ways to feel bad than there are to feel good.
Yes.
What does that say aboutreality?
Anyway, sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (07:52):
But drinking makes you forget.
SPEAKER_00 (07:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:55):
Drink to forget.
SPEAKER_00 (07:57):
The anesthesia of reality.
SPEAKER_01 (07:58):
Oh god.
So, yes, a very popular thoughtfor hangover.
Oh, wait, sorry.
I didn't give you a chance toguess.
Do you have a thought of wherehangover comes from?
SPEAKER_00 (08:08):
I always just took it literally as the alcohol or
the effects of the previous dayare hanging over into the
current day.
SPEAKER_01 (08:17):
Yes.
That that isn't what most yes.
SPEAKER_00 (08:20):
Yeah, it just is what it is.
SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
Yep.
But they it wasn't alwaysreferencing drinking, though.
It could mean anything, like mywork is hanging over from
yesterday.
It could mean anything.
However, I did see that a lot ofpeople think that it comes from
the Victorian age in England, inLondon, in kind of the more
slummy areas.
(08:43):
People would get drunk.
A lot of them, a lot of thesources I found reference
sailors being drunkspecifically.
I don't know why, but maybe Ithink they spent a lot of their
money at the bars and saloons.
So, you know, servicemen.
Yeah.
And they would get drunk andthey would go to these houses
and they would rent a space tostand and hang on a line.
(09:06):
So like a rope would be hungfrom one wall to the other.
SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
And you would just slabs of meat.
Yes.
Like a subway car, the thing youhold.
SPEAKER_01 (09:15):
You would just stand and you would hang on to that.
And those did really exist.
Um, they would rent, they youwould rent a little space for
two pennies, and you would justhope that you don't fall down
and you would just hold on tothat rope.
So you would hang over the ropeas you're drunk.
SPEAKER_00 (09:30):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (09:32):
There were quite a bit of people on one side of the
fence that said, no, it's notfrom this.
And I couldn't really see anyoneadvocating that it was from
this.
They just said we think it'sfrom this, but then they read
that the Oxford EnglishDictionary said that it was not
this.
So I'm leaning towards no, I'mleaning towards it's from just
(09:53):
hangover means to hang over.
And then we eventually used itfor drinking.
But I did see that as we startedusing it as like a hangover from
alcohol, it was around the sametime as the Victorian era.
I mean, it was the same timeframe.
So I I just wonder if maybepeople associated it with
(10:16):
drinking because of hanging overa rope.
SPEAKER_00 (10:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
But hangover was already used normally or
regularly.
SPEAKER_00 (10:25):
Yeah, so it's so two sources of maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (10:29):
That's just what I want to believe.
I didn't see anyone say that.
I'm just putting two thingstogether because I saw dates.
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
Sounds like it could be accurate.
SPEAKER_01 (10:38):
That's just what I'm thinking.
If you have a hangover, in orderto get rid of it, someone might
tell you to have a little bit ofthe hair of the dog that bit
you.
This is our next phrase.
unknown (10:53):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (10:54):
Do you know what this means?
SPEAKER_00 (10:55):
Yeah, keep drinking.
SPEAKER_01 (10:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:57):
Yeah.
Have more alcohol.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
The hair of the dog that bit you have more alcohol
to cure that hangover.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:03):
I mean, I don't know when it started, but it I mean,
the metaphor is prettyself-explanatory.
Like the dog bit you, and so youbite it back.
Keep going.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:13):
All it really does is delay the hangover, though.
SPEAKER_01 (11:16):
I don't know.
I mean, it's medicalprofessionals say this doesn't
help.
It it there's no way it does.
Why would it?
You're just adding more.
SPEAKER_00 (11:23):
Yeah, it'll get you drunk again.
And then you stop feeling bad, Iguess, because you're kind of
numb.
You just it just delays thehangover.
SPEAKER_01 (11:32):
Well, anyway, this isn't about if that works or
not.
This is about the phrase hair ofthe dog that bit you.
Because I wanted to know whythis was even said.
Like, did people get bitten bydogs at one point?
Like, what why?
Why a dog?
Why hair?
Why this?
And what I found was that it wasadvised if you get bitten by a
(11:52):
dog, get some hair from that dogand put it in the wound, and
that will help heal.
SPEAKER_00 (11:59):
I mean, it's in the same, I guess, general, I mean,
I'm being liberal with this, butin the same general wheelhouse
of inoculation, I guess.
SPEAKER_01 (12:10):
There was also still some thought of um what I found
to be called sympathetic magicas well at that time, where
something could cause you harmif you have something of that
person or it could help bebetter if you have something of
that person or that thing.
So I don't know much aboutmagic, but there's some magic
(12:31):
that people still kind ofthought at that time existed,
and this helped.
SPEAKER_00 (12:36):
It's also a little homeopathic of like a little of
the thing that hurts you willsomehow make you better.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
Yeah.
All of this started in like theMiddle Ages, like the 14, 1500s.
So we don't know exactly when itturned into an alcohol thing,
but we know that it there ispeople way back when really did
think getting hair from the dogthat bit you would help cure
you.
And of course, alcohol hurts, itcan hurt the next day.
(13:05):
And so it just makes sense thatthey shift it over to that.
Whenever I have a hangover and Ido follow that old cure of the
hair of the dog that bit you,sometimes I decide to have a
bloody Mary.
And I wanted to know where thename Bloody Mary came from.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
I don't know exactly.
I know, I mean, I before thedrink, obviously, I heard of the
like childhood game of, youknow, you go be in front of a
dark mirror and you say BloodyMary however many times, and you
know, you'll see a ghostlyfigure in the mirror, allegedly.
Oh yeah.
That's yeah, I think it was somemyth figure, you know, some
(13:47):
ghost story.
Bloody Mary killed someone.
I don't know.
That's all I know.
And I assume the drink is calledthat because it looks like
blood.
SPEAKER_01 (13:55):
Kind of.
Oh, it has nothing to do withthe scary Bloody Mary in the
mirror thing.
This is this is separate, but itdoes have to do with blood.
Okay.
So we're starting back in Parisin the 1920s.
There's a bar called Harry's NewYork Bar.
This must have been with likethe lost generation of Hinway
(14:20):
and Stein and Fitzgerald andHarry's opened in 1911 after an
American jockey had a New Yorkbar dismantled and shipped to
Paris.
Oh.
I thought that was sointeresting.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:36):
Turn for the Statue of Liberty.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:39):
That's how we should return it.
SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
No, that's what we could say.
That's the exchange.
Like the Statue of Liberty, wegave them a New York bar.
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
Yeah, okay.
Well, the New York style barbecame an American destination
during the prohibition era.
And then around 1920, people whoescaped the Russian Revolution
arrived in Paris bringing vodkawith them.
Okay.
So we're getting this.
It's right.
You know, it's starting tohappen.
There was bartender.
We're gonna call him Petebecause that's what he goes by,
(15:07):
but it's a French name.
I don't want to try to say, butPete.
And he's a bartender at Harry's,and he doesn't know what to do
with this tasteless vodka, buthe also is seeing this new, not
new, but like newer-ish, kind ofcool ketchup um tomato sauce,
not ketchup, but like a tomatosauce.
And he decided to zhuz it up,add some things, do a little
(15:30):
this, do a little that, and thenadd the vodka, and lo and
behold, we have a bloody Mary.
SPEAKER_00 (15:34):
I like that you described vodka as tasteless
because I've always been like,it is tasteless.
And people are like, I love thetaste of vodka.
I'm like, I don't think you liketo drink.
There's a reason like teenagegirls like vodka the most
because it doesn't taste likeanything.
It's like when old men are like,Oh, vodka is so great.
I'm like, okay, have a daiquiri.
SPEAKER_01 (15:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
It's wait a minute, daiquiri's not cut that.
That's not the right no.
unknown (15:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:59):
Daiquai's rum.
SPEAKER_00 (16:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:01):
Yeah.
I'll cut that, don't worry.
unknown (16:02):
No.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:03):
Um, yeah, I I do think for me, vodka does have a
taste.
I don't like it, but I know thatit's meant to be tasteless, and
most people don't taste it.
Like it's not, it is meant toblend in with drinks, and yeah,
I I just don't like the taste ofit.
SPEAKER_00 (16:17):
Yeah, it's like on all the dumb rankings of the the
taste, the blind, you know,Pepsi challenge for vodka.
I'm like, it all tastes likenothing.
It all tastes like nothing.
SPEAKER_01 (16:26):
The point of vodka is to taste like nothing.
So the best vodka should betasteless.
So yeah.
Anyway, moving on, Pete wouldend up moving to America.
I think he moved to New York,and he would bring the Bloody
Mary drink with him.
He didn't have the name BloodyMary, though.
He actually called it RedSnapper.
SPEAKER_00 (16:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (16:46):
Yeah.
So then the story goes that itstarted to be called Bloody Mary
after Queen Mary Tudor and herbloody reign against the
Protestants in England in the1500s.
SPEAKER_00 (16:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (16:58):
Yeah, because it looks like blood.
SPEAKER_00 (17:01):
All right.
Yeah.
It seems like a stretch that anAmerican audience would care so
much about an antiquated war inanother country to name a I
don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (17:10):
I don't know.
Yes.
I I'm not sure.
There there's there's multipletheories of where the name
Bloody Mary comes from.
The most popular is the Queen,Bloody Mary, which I think is
probably just because it's fun.
SPEAKER_00 (17:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:23):
Like I don't I don't really know.
This is the final theory that Ifound of where the name Bloody
Mary came from.
And I I want it to be this.
This is what I want.
Okay.
unknown (17:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:34):
There was an ad in the 1930s, in the 1930s, that
claimed the drink Bloody Marywas named after a friend of an
entertainer, and the friend'sname was Mary, and Mary worked
at a saloon bar called TheBucket of Blood in Chicago.
SPEAKER_00 (17:52):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (17:53):
And I did not look up to verify if the Bucket of
Blood is an actual bar or not.
I don't know for sure because Iwant this to be true.
SPEAKER_00 (18:00):
I've heard it referenced historically, like in
songs of the era.
Okay.
So it makes sense.
So yeah.
Yeah.
It sounds like yeah, I've heardit referenced in songs and
literature.
SPEAKER_01 (18:14):
Yeah, so I want it to be true.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:16):
So that's what I want it to be called.
I I were that's where I want itto be from.
It's from the bucket of blood,and some entertainer wanted his
friend Mary to be named afterthis.
Yeah.
I love it.
So and that's all I have.
I just wanted to kind of do afew.
SPEAKER_00 (18:35):
Oh, there's not.
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
No, that's it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
These are only like 20 or 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00 (18:40):
Yeah.
unknown (18:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:41):
Yeah.
That's it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:42):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (18:43):
Just a nice quick one, something easy.
I am going to release this oneon the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving.
So I thought it'd be kind offun.
SPEAKER_00 (18:50):
Isn't is this week Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_01 (18:53):
No.
Thanksgiving is on the 27th thisyear.
SPEAKER_00 (18:58):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (18:59):
It's the third Thursday, but it's also the last
Thursday of Jimi Hendrix's deathday.
Right?
Is it the last one?
SPEAKER_00 (19:07):
It's always the last or fourth Thursday.
Is it the fourth or third?
Fourth.
I believe.
SPEAKER_01 (19:13):
It is on November 27th.
SPEAKER_00 (19:15):
That's always the fourth Thursday.
SPEAKER_01 (19:16):
Damn it.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:18):
Why would I think that?
SPEAKER_00 (19:19):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (19:20):
That's weird.
Okay, the fourth third,whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (19:22):
It's Hendrix's birth date this year, not death date.
I said that earlier.
SPEAKER_01 (19:26):
But yes, I wanted to do some bar highlights on the
night before Thanksgiving.
Hope everyone has fun out there.
Um, I will not be going out asmy feet are still broken from my
surgery.
So that's fun.
I get to miss that.
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
She's on the mend.
SPEAKER_01 (19:43):
I'm getting better.
It's not so bad.
But yeah, like, follow, check usout on Instagram, all the
things.
So yeah.
Happy holidays, maybe.
SPEAKER_00 (19:53):
Have the holiday you voted for.
unknown (19:56):
What?
SPEAKER_00 (19:56):
I don't know.
That's just what I my responseto everyone today.
In general, about like what doyou do with the holiday?
Because I'm expecting family tobe starting inviting us to
things and that's just me or myresponse to anyone who invites
me to something.
SPEAKER_01 (20:09):
Okay.
unknown (20:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:11):
Yeah.
So bye.
SPEAKER_00 (20:13):
Bye.
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