Whistle Britches (Rebroadcast) - 7 March 2016

<p>This week on "A Way with Words: Writers and where they do their best creative work.  A new book on Geoffrey Chaucer describes the dark, noisy, smelly room where he wrote his early work. Which raises the question: What kind of space DO you need to produce your best writing? Also, Texas football lingo, and the perfect smart-aleck remark for those times when you can't remember the answer to a question. Plus, how slang terms popular in African-American culture, like bling bling, bae, and on fleek find their way into the mainstream English. Also, salt and pepper cellars, itch a scratch vs. scratch an itch, sick abed on two chairs, a new word for nieces and nephews, the Jimmies and the Joes, aimless walks on Nantucket, and Dadisms.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />The father of one of Martha's friends had all sorts lots of funny sayings, like the one he'd use during a lull in a conversation: Do you live around here or do you ride a bicycle? He'd also respond to, "Are you ready to leave?" with I stay ready, so I don't have to get ready. We're betting that every family has these kinds of goofy, memorable lines. One name for them: Dadisims. <br /><br />A Forth Worth, Texas, listener who interviewed candidates for a head football coach position at a high school reports that out of eight interviewees, six of them used the phrase, It's not about the X's and the O's, it's about the Jimmies and the Joes. It's a shorthand way of emphasizing the importance of valuing the players themselves, and first pops up in print in an LA Times story from 1991. <br /><br />Scratching an itch is far more common than itching a scratch. Both are grammatically correct, but the latter is considered informal.<br /><br />If someone asks you a question but you've forgotten the answer, you might respond with the phrase I've slept since then. The implication seems to be that it's been more than 24 hours since you either learned the information or needed to remember it, so you're excused. It's a phrase that gets handier the older we get. <br /><br