Maverick and Gobbledygook Minicast - 15 Sept. 2008

Mmmmmaverick. Maverick, Maverick, Maverick. Maverick, Maverick, Maverick, Maverick. Maverick.<br/><br/>Is it just my imagination, or are we hearing this word a whole LOT more lately?<br/><br/>You usually hear it applied a politician who's staunchly independent and stubbornly non-conformist. But where'd we get an odd word like this? The answer involves a Texas political dynasty that added not one, but two, familiar words to English.<br/><br/>Samuel Augustus Maverick was 19th-century Texas lawyer who went into politics. He was elected mayor of San Antonio in 1839 and later served in the Texas State Legislature. He also speculated in land deals. And he owned cattle, which he kept on a 385,000-acre ranch. <br/><br/>In those days, cattlemen didn't always fence in their land, which meant their animals often roamed free. So, ranchers branded their cattle to prevent theft, and resolve disputes over ownership. Well, all the ranchers, that is, except for Samuel Maverick. <br/><br/>Maverick was notorious for refusing to brand his own livestock. So whenever his neighbors saw an animal without a brand, especially a calf that had strayed from its mother, they'd say things like, 'Oh, that must be a Maverick.'<br/><br/>Maverick told people he considered branding cruelty to animals. Skeptics, though, charged that by refusing to brand his animals, Maverick could then lay claim to any unbranded cattle as his own.<br/><br/>Over the years, this term for a 'stray, unmarked calf' also came to apply to any kind of strong-willed nonconformist, particularly a politician not 'branded' by special interests. <br/><br/>And the linguistic legacy of this Texas family goes even further. The Mavericks can take credit for yet another familiar English word that involves politics: That word is gobbledygook. Ggggobbledygook, gobbledygook, gobbledygook, gobbledy--well, you get the picture. <br/><br/>Anyway, it turns out that Samuel Maverick's grandson, Maury Maverick, also went into politics, eventually serving in the U.S. Congress. A folksy, plainspo