Saturday, June 26, 2010

I don’t know Nick the bartender from Adam’s off ox


In my previous post I used the phrase “Adam’s off ox.” For those of you who have never heard that expression before, click here for an interesting explanation by a British blogger named Michael Quinion.

For the record, my mother said “Adam’s off ox” and she was born in Philadelphia. I suppose that explains why I say it; after all, I learned to talk at my mother’s knee. My wife says “Adam’s housecat.” She was also born in Philadelphia, but she moved to North Carolina when she was eleven. I never heard any of the other variations Michael mentions (Adam’s brother, Adam’s foot, Adam’s pet monkey) in my entire life. In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Nick the bartender said, “I don’t know you from Adam’s off ox.”

Today’s trivia factoid: Nick the bartender was played by Sheldon Leonard, who in later years produced the television series The Danny Thomas Show (1953 - 1964), The Andy Griffith Show (1960 - 1968), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 - 1966), I Spy (1965 - 1968), and some episodes of Gomer Pyle, USMC.


Something else I say is “Braddock’s bull.” My wife says “Blalock’s bull.” We are obviously incompatible.

[Editor's Note. I also say “buck naked” but a lot of people say “butt naked.” Epstein’s Law comes into play here, which I have named for my friend and former colleague, Sanford J. Epstein, a 305-lb. Jew from Burlington, Vermont, and Pompano Beach, Florida, who said, “If there’s a difference that makes no difference, then there is no difference.” He also wore a Kelly green suit every St. Patrick’s Day and changed his name tag to read Sanford J. O’Epstein, but I have chosen to ignore that. -- RWP, 6/27/2010]

9 comments:

  1. I just love, 'It's a Wonderful Life', but I digress.
    In my part of the world, we just say, "I don't know you from Adam", which worked fine until Adam became one of the most popular names for boys. Now, such a comment usually illicits the reply, "Which one?" x

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  2. Thank you for the link to the discussion of "Adam's off ox," (a phrase I've heard most of my life). I found the site to be delightful and have added it to my feeds. I love words, and the origins thereof, although my ability to use more "cultured" vocabulary has dimenished drastically in my old age.

    Aside: the word verification popped right up this time.

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  3. Rather -- "diminished" My spelling has gone down the tube, too.

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  4. To avoid all this confusion with language, you should probably and very simply just stop talking. Failing that, if you buy me a return air ticket to Atlanta I will fly over to give you expert coaching from the cradle of English - England itself. I will sleep in the spare room. Breakfast will be homemade pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, prepared by Mrs Brague and for dinner I will require rib-eyed steak barbecued by yourself while I lounge in the pool. Don't worry - I only charge $250 a day.

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  5. Our family has used the phrase "I woulsn't know him/her from Adam's house cat" for as long as I remember as a way of saying they don'tknow someone. I have never heard the variations. Thank you RWP.

    I think you should take YP up on his offer.

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  6. I DO know you from Adam - sort of! But not your new blog design - you have been playing! :)

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  7. I always thought the expression used by the bartender in IAWL was "Adam's off aunt." No idea if that's really what he said or it's only what I heard or, either way, what it means.

    Once during a sermon at church I heard the preacher say "children of leprechauns" which flummoxed me until on the way home I asked my man what that meant and he told me the preacher said "children of leper colonies."

    Oh.

    I didn't know leper colonies had children but I can see it more than I can see leprechauns having them.

    But if they did, they'd be born buck naked.

    As you were.

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  8. I've always been amused and amazed and fascinated and fixated with Which Came First? The "butt " or the "buck" when it came to buck/butt nekkid.

    Meanwhile, and this is where I get amused and amazed and fascinated and fixated with Which Came First? The irony or the synchronicity...
    For the past five minutes, and since it's hot enough to fry either
    A: The chicken
    B: The egg
    on
    A: the sidewalk
    B: my desk
    well, the fact is that I made the choice, a minute or two before I opened your blog, to get all the way in the altogether butt/buck naked state.

    Though rumor has it that this is pretty much true of most of your readers most of the time.

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    Replies
    1. George Costanza on "Seinfeld" revealed that if he became a porn star, he would choose "Buck Naked" as his stage-name.

      Delete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

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