Going for that Anti-Marketing Dollar - 10 Aug. 2009

[This episode first aired May 2, 2009.]<br/><br/>In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? <br/><br/>(The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks <http://www.billhicks.com/>.)<br/><br/>Here's a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10adco.html> about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy.<br/><br/>'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. A caller who played the game as a child wonders if its roots lie in her Cajun heritage.<br/><br/>It's an easy way to separate New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers: 'Do you stand on line or in line?' A Midwesterner who relocated to the Big Apple wants to know why people there are adamant about waiting on line instead of in line. See a map showing the dispersal of both forms across the U.S. <http://www4.uwm.edu//FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_93.html>.<br/><br/>Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: 'My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.' (Keep saying it over and over until you hear this instrument's name.)<br/><br/>If you're doing a hasty, haphazard job, you're said to do it with 'a lick and a promise.' What's the origin of that expression?<br/><br/>Who put the piping in the expression 'piping hot'?<br/><br/>Oh, that gives me 'agita'! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office w