Jack does some light research on the origins of phrase!
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Episode Transcript
There's more than one way to skin the cat of etymology,
it's one more thing. I'm strong, and one more thing.
So first, Joe used the disgusting phrase more than one
way to skin a cat, which we got off on
wondering where that comes from, and a whole bunch of
people texted, it's catfish, it's the way to skin catfish.
(00:23):
That mayn't be true. That may not be I even
looked it up. And even if I look it up
and find it, that doesn't mean it's accurate because some
other website will say something different. That's it within a
week anyway, Right, That's been my history of these things.
But Joe also used the phrase screwed and tattooed, which
I was actually wondering about somewhat and apparently the actual phrases,
(00:44):
and I've heard this before screwed, ballued, and tattooed.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Please tell me this is not horrifying because I used it,
you know on the r it can be any of it.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
At least three things. Where this came from? This this.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So blued, that's grammatically incorrect.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well on this one, it's it came from ship's mechanics,
tighten all parts and screws use bluing to stain the metal,
which is something you do, put an inspection mark through
the blue paint with a tool, and to tattoo the
part to show that it has been taken care of.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Screwed blue, its completely taken.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Care of, right, or it could be this. Before shipping
out from a foreign port, call a sailor would see
a local working girl. That would be the screwed portion
of the conversation. After that he'd dress in his navy
blue uniform to head back to the ship. Then he'd
(01:49):
get another tattoo to remember where he had been.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Okay, bullshit on that one, but it's charming anyway.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I don't know if I believe that one. And then
also the one.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Tane charming, you know, including the hooker and everything, but
at least I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So apparently back in the day, and again this is
yet another version of this. Back in the day in
the Navy, you would take a mercury pill, which was
a blue pill, to treat the syphilis you got while
you were in you know, in town, while you're doctor
or whatever. So you got screwed, you got syphilis, you
got blued. With the medicine to treat the syphilis, and
(02:32):
then you'd show your ship's tattoo to avoid being pressed
into service on another ship to get out of town.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Huh. I feel like it almost feels like a game show, Katie,
doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah, I'm gonna go with answer A. I think the
first one sounds the most legit out of those three.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Uh i uh. I find it interesting that there are
all kinds of words and phrases that we use because
we know what we know what you're trying to say
with them. But like the origin will turn out to
be very very different or whatever. It doesn't make any difference.
It just doesn't make any difference. If it's being it's
been used for the last fifty years to communicate a
(03:17):
certain thing, what difference does the origin make at that point?
Does it make any difference?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's it's interesting, I'm charming, but no, it means what
it means currently. Yeah, it's like the whole idiotic BLM.
And again you have to remember all of that crap
was fake. It was designed to overthrow the powers that
be in Western civilization. So the idea that you couldn't
use the term picnic, it was just an effort to
get you to obey them anyway, just to they are
(03:46):
calling the shots. They will tell you what you can
say and what you can't say. The idea was to
get you on your heels anyway. I came across another
list of.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Possibilities of what it might mean.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Well, it's like funny, a common one we got. We
spent a lot of time on this. Some politician used
the term, I think balls to the walls, and then
people were horrified about it, and then everybody got into
the etymology of that, and then some of them it was,
you know, sexual, and some of them it was mechanical. Mare.
It's all kinds of different, had to do with trains
(04:26):
or planes or whatever. It wasn't sexual at all, right.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Or yeah, I can't remember what it was, but it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
It was completely not sexual.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah. Do you have any look on skinning a cat there, Katie,
Now not yet. Well, we got a bunch of texts
on that pole cat, which is a raccoon, is often
referred to as a cat, and you did skin raccoons
because the fur trade was a really big deal. Yeah,
so that could Yeah, that's probably where it came from,
probably eighteen hundreds, you know, of fur traders.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
But again to your point, using that expression doesn't mean
you're soft on raccoon skinning or fur in general, or.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Know anything about the multiple ways to get the hide
off of raccoon, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It's it's irrelevant to say, you know, that's actually an
expression that means, you know, that's interesting, but just quit
with It's that weird presentism thing, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, it's another form of that.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
It's just a fake, annoying way to show moral superiority.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So there was an editor's note on one of these
that said sybilist is actually incurable and mercury will not help.
But it was believed at the time that it was
well certainly still incurable.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
No, no, you can cure it with antibiotics unless it
goes too far.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Why does Katie? Why does Joon know so much about
I'm kind of curious myself there, Joe. I don't actually
know if syphilis is like a common current one or
if it's an old timy one. Is it a common one? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Absolutely? Yeah, Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Know for all yours.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I'm telling you. I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
By the third time I got the treatment, I could
have done it myself.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I said, I can give me the needle, had your miroscope,
and you'd put a little sample under there. A lot
looks like simphle, it's again, diy, Oh my goodness, hey.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Honey, syphiliss again.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I used to work the venereal disease desk the Armstrong
and Getdy Show. I remember, especially when we were just
a local show in northern California. The statistics would come
out every year, and you know, upsurges in gonna rhea
and syphilis or whatever in the state of California. Some
department put out a report and I'd always bring it.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Up, see how the state's doing. Hey, gotta rea down,
but syphilis up?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Folks?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Where that condom? Come on?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I've never understood how old time the Old West prostitution worked.
It's just I don't know. It's pre condom. I just
what was going on there?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, they had condoms preest before the modern.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Using them.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I don't know. I wasn't there they were.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I don't actually know. But like when you watch those
old timey Westerns and everybody's kind of just joking about
going upstairs with the local harlet, it's gotta be disgusting.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Nobody shower abortions, abortions, and and and VD.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Well and just just being grossly dirty. In addition to
all that, it's just ah.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, they had water. You could take a bath. You've
seen the Westerns where you lay there in the.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Like once a month after a cattle drive or something.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Put as long as it's before the sex.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And how long since? When did she take her the
most recent bath?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I don't know, ask her. Besides, we did a syphilis soon,
don't worry about it.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Here's a fun fact. In the late eighteenth cent made
out of sheep guts, condoms were soaked for a couple
of hours and then made to have them be pliable afterwards,
and then they would put a ribbon at the end of.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Its especially for the holidays.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Santa hat. Another possibility
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Old timey condoms like great stocking stuff for well, I
guess that's it.
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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