Something Rhymes with Purple - AMERIGO

Episode Date: November 22, 2022

Come discover which Italian explorer gave his name to the continent of America, why Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love and why you “Take the T” when in Boston as we travel down the East Coast of America. Susie shares further adventures from her time in Princeton and Gyles gives us a healthy dose of name-drops with an American flavour. We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: [e-mail] We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: Grubble: To feel around in the dark Confabulate: To talk easily; to prattle Sideration: A sudden paralysis or feeling of mortification Gyles read ‘A word to husbands’ by Ogden Nash To keep your marriage brimming With love in the loving cup, Whenever you're wrong, admit it; Whenever you're right, shut up. A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts   To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play LEGO Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. Hello and welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. This is a podcast all about words and language that takes us down the highways and byways of English. And with me, as always, is the most wonderful and delectable Giles Brandreth. Hello, Giles. Hello, Susie.

And I'm in a state of high excitement because last night I was at an event for a charity called Waterloo Uncovered at the National Gallery. Waterloo Uncovered is a charity operating in the United Kingdom which encourages, well, enables former veterans, ex-soldiers, military people, who may have been wounded physically, mentally damaged in war, to get together and get involved in, of all things, archaeology. They go to the site of the Battle of Waterloo, and they do archaeology there. And it's just amazing.

They discover things when they're in the battlefield, but also they have the camaraderie of being together again. Anyway, that's by the by. It was at the National Gallery. We're looking at these paintings in the National Gallery of London, and somebody is fighting their way through the crowd to get to me. There are hundreds of people there, and I'm slightly embarrassed. This figure is coming towards me, and he embraces me in front of all these people and says, I'm a purple person. I'm a purple person and hugs me. And people around are sort of amazed what is going on here. Is this some kind of protest by these paintings, these famous paintings?

And I'd have to turn to the crowd and explain what something rhymes with purple is. I know it is a very strange concept when people say that. I agree. And it does induce bemusement in people who have no clue what they're talking about. But I love that. Do you know what? That's the most special thing about our podcast, bar none, is this community spirit and just the lovely, lovely people. And the fact that it is global.

Yes. And we have a huge number of people listening in North America, both in Canada and in the United States of America. in North America, both in Canada and in the United States of America. And I thought it would be quite fun if we could explore some of the language of North America, or in fact, even the names of North America. Because one of my grandchildren, I say we can talk about America, and he said, where does the word America come from? And I have some recollection of it being Amerigo, Dispacho, anyway, what is the origin of America? If we're going to start there. Okay.

So obviously the colonies, I suppose, established, you know, America. I mean, obviously they adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring America's freedom from Great Britain, etc. But the name America was actually given a long time before that. It's named after Amerigo Vespucci, and he was an Italian explorer.

And he basically elaborated on what was quite revolutionary at the time, this concept that the lands that Christopher Columbus sailed to, and we're talking late 15th century, were part of a separate continent. So, yes, the name of the continent is from Amerigo Vespucci it is an eponym an eponym is something that's named after an individual exactly and it's interesting because of course america was america before amerigo vespucci there were people living there who were the original people in that part of the world and it's interesting that people are quite comfortable with it being named after an Italian. So Amerigo, I was calling him Gaspaccio, but it's said again. Vespucci.

Vespucci. Yes. And he was an Italian explorer. Exactly right. Before Christopher Columbus? He was an explorer and a navigator from Florence. And between the late 15th century, so we're talking, I think, 1497 and maybe 1504, 1505, he went on some voyages of the Age of Discovery and actually not for Italy, but for Spain and

then for Portugal. And he was the one who essentially took after Christopher Columbus and said, you know, this actually is a separate continent, which, as I say, was, you know, was pretty revolutionary at the time. And so cartographers then reflected this radical concept. And because he posited this, and it was found out to be, you know, the case, the name America was kind of permanently affixed to these newly discovered continents. Sometimes people using slang refer to Americans as Yankees. That's not correct, is it? That's just one side in the American Civil War were the Yankees? Remind me of what a Yankee is. Yeah. So, yes, more narrowly. I mean, I think most of us, particularly if it's used in a

derogatory way, because it can actually be used as a sort of, you know, a collective term that I think Americans themselves often quite humorously embrace. But essentially, yes, either a citizen of the US or more narrowly, it's the New England state. So we're talking Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Ireland and Connecticut. And it's interesting, it's one of the most hotly debated etymologies really when it comes to the lexicon of the Americas, because it's thought possibly to derived from the Dutch Janker. Now Janker means little John, really. And it was applied as a pretty derisive nickname by the English for Dutch settlers in New England. And then as you say, it went on to become again, an insult for would-be American citizens during the battle for independence from the British crown. And a Yankee Doodle Dandy, which, you know, we all remember. I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. Yes.

Yeah, that was an insult for a foppish, weak soldier. But it was then reclaimed as these insults so often are. And after the Battle of Bunkle Hill, the Americans even held doodle dances and it became a kind of badge of pride, if you like. So it's an example of a word that's sort of been reclaimed, but having started off as a nickname. There are lots of theories around this though, which is that it comes from the Dutch John Cheese, Young Keys, which again would have started out as an insult. So we're not completely sure, but we're pretty sure that its origins are Dutch. Well, let's stick in that part of the United States, which is, as you say, New England. New England so-called, I assume, because that's where British people went and they called it a New England. Is that correct?

Yeah. So when the founding fathers went over, essentially what they took with them was, as we've often said on the podcast, you know, a mishmash of English. So a sort of a slightly chaotic spelling system, host of British dialect, and also lots and lots of English place names, British place names. So, yeah, that's why we have Boston. Just, I mean, Cambridge, we have so many names that actually originated here. And Boston and Cambridge are both in Massachusetts. Boston, I assume, comes from Boston and Lincolnshire, does it? Boston and Lincolnshire, yeah, exactly.

Oh, you know, just to go back a second, we were talking about Dutch settlers in New England, so sort of staying with Boston. Did you know that the word cookie, which is, of course, the American version of our biscuit, actually comes from another Dutch word? So you can see the Dutch influence there. Cookie, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, means little cake. Good. Well, at your Boston tea party, you enjoy some little cake. Massachusetts, which is where Boston is, that is not English, is it? No. So that would have come from an indigenous language, and that's probably the Algonquian

nation. Now, lots and lots of words began with Algonquian, so a really important indigenous language when it comes to the development of American English. And I think it translates as something literally is about the Great Hills. So this is probably the Blue Hills, which were southwest of Boston. How wonderful. So it's a real, I mean, not only is the country a melting pot, but the language is very much a melting pot, English, American English. Yeah, and it's really important to point out the indigenous languages, because obviously they were there. They came into conflict quite often with the founding fathers, but also they kind of coexisted, particularly linguistically. But these early settlers who came from our shores,

they were encountering things for the very first time that they'd never seen, whether it was possums or moccasins or, I don't know, people burying the hatchet. And all of these ideas actually came from indigenous languages or indigenous customs. So a huge amount of vocabulary was then borrowed, or you might say plundered from these really important indigenous languages, which stay with us still, albeit invisibly. My knowledge of Massachusetts is pretty limited and really dates back half a century. During my gap year, I spent some time in Massachusetts. My claims to fame were meeting Julia Childs. Have you heard of her?

Oh, yes. She was a cook. The famous television cook and cookery writer. I met her. I went to Salem, Massachusetts. I remember that, which is the site of where they had the witches and the witch hunt for the basis of the famous play by Arthur Miller, The Crucible. And I picked up some slang while I was there. But the last time we talked about North American slang, I got into

such trouble because everything I was saying was literally half a century out of date. So can you give me any Boston slang that may be more contemporary than what I could offer you? Well, it's funny because I feel like I'm slightly in the same bracket as you, because obviously I studied on the East Coast of America. And I lived there for four years. So I studied in Princeton, which is between New York City and Philadelphia. And I'm not really sure that I picked up much slang there, really, myself. But I can give you a bit of Boston slang. Now, this comes, we have to say, from a Boston native. So Adria, who is in the US office of something else, our podcast producers,

has given us some brilliant little gems. One is taking the tea. Any idea what this is? It's not about spilling the tea. Is it to do with the Boston Tea Party in some way, shape or form? Lovely idea. No, it's taking the local subway system, essentially. Oh, is it tea for tram or tea for? It's tea for transportation. So MBTA is the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

What about bang a U-ey? That sounds actually quite Australian, doesn't it? I think I gave an Australian twist there. That's just doing a U-ey? That sounds actually quite Australian, doesn't it? I think I gave an Australian twist there. That's just doing a U-turn, but I like that. I just find that quite expressive. It's very expressive. I thought it was going to be something quite rude to do a simple U-turn. I'm going to Bang a U-ey. Very good. Bang a U-ey. Now, have you ever been to Cape Cod? I have. I've been to Cape Cod, and it's very, very beautiful. I do remember that. I went looking for Kennedys. It shows you how long ago it was. And they were like the royal family in America at that time. Talking about the 60s. Extraordinary. Well, it was named apparently by an English

explorer. So this was Bartholomew Gosnold. And he visited the shores of Cape Cod in the early 17th century and took aboard what was described as a great store of codfish. And then in 1620, the pilgrims landed at Provincetown. So that's on the tip of Cape Cod before going on to Plymouth. And of course, Plymouth, another name that they took with them. But apparently it's never at the Cape or in the Cape. It is always down the Cape or on the Cape, Adria tells us. And if you live on the Cape and the islands, people say you're going off Cape. That's the kind of detail that you really need to know. Because if you were writing a detective story and somebody pretended to come from that part of the world and said, you know, they'd been at the Cape for the weekend, you'd know they were an imposter because you've got to get the language right. I've just remembered, you know how I love to name drop.

And I was thinking, well, I mentioned the Kennedys now, but did I meet any of them? And then I suddenly remembered that during this gap year in Washington, D.C., I was in the Senate and I got into a lift and there was Robert Kennedy, who was the second brother. Jack Kennedy was the one who was the president. He also was assassinated. And we traveled in the lift together. And it actually, I didn't realize it said outside senators only. And it was a lift exclusively for the use of senators. But I was young and naive, and I didn't see the sign. So I stepped into the elevator. And the people outside were saying, come out, come out. But I was young and naive and I didn't see the sign. So I stepped into the elevator and the people outside were saying, come out, come out. But I didn't know.

Anyway, so I travelled in an elevator with Robert Kennedy. Wow. Actually, I think you need to write a book just about your lift encounters. And one of the purple people out there I know will have the most brilliant title for this. But you have met so many people in the lift. Well, that's where I do meet Mariah Carey was the last one you mentioned Mariah Carey but my most famous one you know is Michael Jackson I've told you this story in the in the in the lift in London in the lift in London this is a book

it was at the at RIBA the Royal Institute of British Architects and he was there to meet his friend Yuri Geller who was launching a book and I know Yuri Geller, who was launching a book. And I know Yuri Geller. That's why I was invited. And by chance, I arrived at the same time as Michael Jackson. And I had the bright idea of going to the back of the building, thinking that he might arrive there. The front of the building were hundreds of people.

This is 25 years ago. And he was there. And we got into this service lift together. And up we went. And he had minders with him. And he looked like he would expect Michael Jackson to look. He was actually wearing the full Michael Jackson kit, you know, with black trousers and sort of diamante bits down the side. He looked like the real thing, masked and wearing a hat, a sort of slouch hat.

Anyway, I chatted away. Masked? As in what kind of mask? The kind of masks we all wore during the pandemic. He was early into that. He was wearing a black face mask to protect his health. And anyway, I was chattering away and he made no reply. But I was saying, how exciting to meet you, Mr. Jackson. And I've always loved you as a solo act.

Never mind the other five and all of that. Trying to be amusing. And he got out of the lift the other end and walked away. And I said to one of his minders, well, that's a bit disappointing. I mean, I was trying to be pleasant to Mr. Jackson and he didn't say a word. And the minder said, it's a Monday. Mr. Jackson never speaks on a Monday. This is just superb.

It's unbelievable, isn't it? But it turns out to be true. He had a rule towards the end of his life that he was conserving himself and didn't use excess energy on a Monday. And that's the day the party was being given. So he got to the party and poor old Yuri had hoped Michael might say a few words, but it on a Monday. And that's the day the party was being given. So he got to the party and poor old Yuri had hoped Michael might say a few words, but it was a Monday. So he said nothing.

He said nothing. I'm going to adopt this policy. I have to say, I love it. It's a good idea. Anyway, it is a good idea. That's Boston slang. You lived further down south then between New York and Philadelphia.

I did. Should we take a quick break before we go to New York? Oh, why not? And then we'll take a bite out of the Big Apple. Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars, like Ed O'Neill, who had limited prospects outside of acting. The only thing that I had that I could have done was organize crime.

And Sofia Vergara, my very glamorous stepmom. Well, I didn't want to be comfortable. Or Julie Bowen, who had very special talents. I used to be the crier. Or my TV daughter, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who did her fair share of child stunts. They made me do it over and over and over. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. who did her fair share of child stunts. They made me do it over and over and over. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts.

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conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. I'm Giles. Here's Susie. We're in New York, New York, New York. Have you lived there? Yes, so I did live in Manhattan for a little while, for about a year and a half, actually, while I was at Princeton. Princeton, utterly beautiful. Loved it. But I also wanted a sort of, you know, taste of the exciting giddy heights of New York City and loved it, actually. It was really hard to leave there, but very, very special place.

Is New York, rather like Boston, named after Boston and Lincolnshire, is it named after York in Yorkshire, New York? Yes, yes. Extraordinary. I know, it's just weird. When you start unpicking it, you know, you think of it. So, it was in honour of the Duke of York. So, it was originally New Amsterdam. So, you see the Dutch influence again here. And then I think the colony of what was called New Netherland was established by the Dutch West India Company in the early 17th century,

well, 1620s, and then grew to encompass all of present day New York City and parts of New Jersey and Long Island, I think as well. But you're telling me, rather like places named after individuals like Melbourne in Australia, I think is named after the Prime Minister, Melbourne. You're telling me it's actually named after, I wonder if they knew this, the Duke of York, not the city of York. New York City is named after the Duke of York of the time. But he would have taken his name from that city as well, wouldn't he? So there is the sort of, if you go back far enough, you will find that connection. But it was founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists. And as you say, it was called New Amsterdam

and then was renamed New York because King Charles II granted the lands to his brother, who was the Duke of York. Very good. And it's known as the Big Apple, as I mentioned. Why is it known as the Big Apple, not the Big Potato or the Big Banana? Well, do you know what? We are, again, not completely sure. One of the theories is that it was coined in the horse racing community by a horse racing writer for the New York Morning Telegraph. And he reported hearing the phrase, the Big Apple, used by stable lads.

And it was sort of like taking a chunk out of this big, juicy fruit, you know, have a bite of the Big Apple. And he used it later in reference to New York City. He wrote a piece in The Telegraph called Around the Big Apple. And that's the earliest citation we have, which is 1924. And it says, the Big Apple, the dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one big apple. That's New York. Do you know, I think we need to dedicate a whole episode to the boroughs and the places in New York City because we won't be able to do it justice. The Bronx and Staten Island too. And Brooklyn.

I've got so many Brooklyn stories because I had a lot of family living in Brooklyn. Oh, let's do that. I said I was between New York City and Philadelphia. Take us to Philly. Is it named after the cheese? Philadelphia cheese. Why is Philadelphia called Philadelphia? I think you might find it the other way around. It's a combination famously of two Greek words. So philio meaning love and brother, adelphos. So it's the city of brotherly love. Named by its founder, William Penn. So Penn obviously also gave his name to Pennsylvania. And he was an English writer, a religious thinker, a Quaker. And he was a very

early advocate of democracy and also religious liberty, really. So he also really endeavoured to have successful relationships with the Native American peoples who lived there. So he wanted a city of religious tolerance where no one would be persecuted, to live at peace with the Native Americans, to pay them fairly for rights to any land that they took. And so Pennsylvania itself is from Penn, his name, and Sylvania, which translates as woodlands, essentially. So they're like Penn's woodlands, really. And as I say, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. I used to collect Sylvania bears.

In fact, we've got some in our Teddy Bear collection. We do, Sylvania family, yeah. So that comes as in sylvan, meaning from the country, from the... Exactly, from the woodlands. Lovely. So Philadelphia is regarded as the birthplace of America, isn't it? I mean, there is the Freedom Bell there and all of that. It's where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Absolutely.

And the Amish, of course, live there still, live in the countryside of Pennsylvania, so nearby. Yeah, so its role in the American Revolution, as you say, in the signing of the Declaration of Independence, has led to it being called the birthplace of America. But once again, we have a good insider telling us about the slang from Philly. This is from Grant in the US office of something else, who tells us about the word jawn. So this is J-A-W-N. I don't know if I'm pronouncing this correctly. So forgive me if I'm not. I'll just say it's jawn for British speakers. And it can mean pretty much everything. It's a multi-purpose word and I love it. And Grant says, I have drafts of notes labelled jawn. I asked my wife to pass me the jawn. It's truly my favourite word. And what I like most about it is that it comes out when I need it most. So evolved is a

really a variation on joint, like a place, as in this case, this joint. And it has been used to describe clothing, events, locations or just anything. So I love that. I think we should adopt it forthwith. It's brilliant. John, that's fantastic. When are we doing our next live show, by the way? Yes, we are. Doing one in December, aren't we? Yeah, 18th of December at the Fortune Theatre.

At the Fortune Theatre. And by the way, oh, the reason I'm thinking about it is, John, I wondered if it was another euphemism for undergarments. I'm sure. I think it could mean anything. And that is the subject of our next show, isn't it? Giles, do you know what? I don't even think we've got time today to go to Washington. There is so much to say, but we will return.

But meanwhile, we have a few, well, more than a few, we have some lovely emails in from our fantastic purple people. And the first one comes from Sue Weingardner. Dear Giles and Susie, I've returned to Germany after flying in to catch a wonderful live show at the Fortune Theatre in London. My brother and I had such a fantastic time. My mother is 92 and lives in South London, and she has lists of funny phrases that she used in the good old days that aren't in use now. She would really like to know the origin of hunky-dory. She suspects it may have come over with the Americans in World War II. Anyway, many thanks from a Purple family.

Purple family, no less. And Sue, thank you so much for coming over from Germany to see us. That really is very special. Hunky Dory, I think I still use this as well, not just your lovely mum. And she's right, actually, because our best bet is that it began as slang amongst American sailors who remembered a street in the Japanese city of Yokohama, which was called Honchi Dori. Now, this is a place that was well known for its bars and other sources of amusement, including a few brothels, shall we say. So Honchi Dori, I think translates roughly as main street, but all sorts of entertainment for sailors on shore leave. And English already had the term hunky for something splendid. And we think that came from the Dutch for home, in fact. And maybe the sailors enjoyed the punning connection between honcho from the Japanese place name Honcho Dory

and hunky with the result that Hunky Dory was born. So it does mean fine and dandy, really. But Sue's mum is spotton with the fact that it probably began with American military in this case. Sue Weingardner is her name. I assume she's called Weingardner because one of her forebears was in the wine business. Yes, possibly. I mean, I immediately thought of, I think it's more common in German, actually, Weingardner. But yeah, I assume so. I think they must have been vintners or wine growers. Yeah. Well, she flew in from Germany and now somebody is writing to us from Crete.

The whole world is becoming, is turning purple. Who's this? This is Jill Pickering. When rummaging through a drawer or a box of papers, I have always used the verb to rifle. However, listening to a podcast recently, I heard one of the presenters use riffle and another said she would have said rifle, which is correct. Is it a regional variation? I am from the northeast. Jill Pickering, currently living in Crete. Oh, I'd love to know her story, how she's ended up in Crete, drill pickering. Oh, anyway, I love the sound of her voice. Are you riffling through papers or are you rifling through papers?

Well, it's interesting. I often use riffling, riffling through the dictionary, and people often say, isn't it rifling? And I'm often picked up on that. Rifling to me has more of a sense of plunder, and that is more etymologically in keeping with the very beginnings of the word, because the old French rifler, it's about rifler, meant both to plunder and to scratch. And the plunder sense developed to mean to search thoroughly, which is why we might rifle through a book these days. And actually the making of grooves in the barrel of a gun in the scratch sense gave us obviously the rifle guns that we know today. But the rifle in French is pronounced exactly that, the rifle. So we adopted the French pronunciation for riffle as well and put an extra F in for good

measure. So it can be riffle or rifle, Jill. You can absolutely take your pick. I find riffle, for me, sounds more like searching through the pages of a dictionary rather than rifle, which, as I say, sounds a bit more like plundering booty, but entirely up to you. And when you use the word riffle, are you spelling it with two Fs and rifle with one F? So in fact, they are two different words. And you are saying there is a nuanced change of meaning between the two. Well, in my mind, but I think if you looked in a dictionary, they're just both variations on the same theme. There is no mind more beautiful than your mind. We want to be in your mind.

So for me, from now on, I shall be riff. I want to riffle through your mind. And I can and people can riffle through Susie's mind by getting in touch with us. It's simply purple at somethingelse.com is where you write to us and something has no G in it. I'll just throw in for Jill as well that riffraff, which was first written as riff and raff,

is probably also from that riffley because the riffraff would kind of, the idea was that these disreputable citizens would plunder things and carry them off. Have you got, Susie, a trio of interesting words to share with us this week? I do. And I was riffling through a bridged version of Samuel Johnson's dictionary the other day. So

all three of these come from his dictionary of the English language. And actually, this is fairly related to riffling. It's all about feeling around or looking around, but in the dark. Now, we all do this at night when you just sort of want to find something on your bedside table and you're just, you know, searching around in vain. To feel around in the dark is otherwise known as grumbling. Grumbling. That's a very useful word, actually. It is. And quite easy to remember, grumbling. I go grumbling. Grumbling. Exactly. Confabulate. Now, I like this one. It sounds like you're making up stories and fables, but actually it just means prattling on or talking easily and at length. Confabulate. Now I like this one. It sounds like you're making up stories and fables, but actually it just means prattling on or talking easily and at length, confabulating, confabulate. And finally, now I like this one because it's got multiple applications, I find.

Sideration, S-I-D-E-R-A-T-I-O-N. And it's a sudden paralysis or feeling of mortification. So if you're sort of overwhelmed with embarrassment, you are feeling a bit of sideration. And it goes back to the Greek sidere meaning a constellation because all of these feelings and things that were attendant upon disaster were thought to come from the stars, as you know. So sideration, a sudden feeling of mortification. These are such good words you share with us. You're fantastic. Well, those are Samuel Johnson's. I hat tip to him for including them in his dictionary. And is there an accessible version of his dictionary? You say you were looking at a Bridge One.

Yes, I was looking at a Bridge One. And while you do your poem, I will get it down from my shelf and I'll tell you what it is. Good. Well, I tell you, I wanted this week, because I knew we're going to be in North America, I wanted to share a North American poem with you. And I reached, I riffled through my favourite North American writers. And I stopped for a moment when I came across my favourite philosopher, who was probably Will Rogers, 1879 to 1935, who was a Cherokee American showman. He was a film star, humorist, columnist, social commentator. He came from Oklahoma and he traveled the world. He made lots of movies. Most of them were silent movies

and he wrote lots of newspaper columns. And he said wise things like, never let yesterday use up too much of today. Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. And this is one of my favorite sayings of his. Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke. It's a good line, isn't it? He's also the man who said, and my wife wants me to have this as my screensaver. This is Will Rogers. Never miss a good chance to shut up. Now, those aren't poems. They're just one-liners from the great Will Rogers. My poem is very short, and it's a word to husbands

by somebody who, in my view, is a great American poet, not quite in the same league as the great Robert Frost, but he is nonetheless remarkable. It's Ogden Nash. A poem by Ogden Nash, born 1902, died 1971. This poem is simply called A Word to Husbands. To keep your marriage brimming with love in the loving cup. Whenever you're wrong, admit it. Whenever you're right, shut up. Whenever you're right, shut up is extremely good advice it is good advice isn't it i love

if we wanted a access to one of dr johnson's dictionary yes so just checking mine was the penguin classics version and it's an anthology written obviously by samuel johnson but also edited by the you know the inimitable david crystal who is as you you know, my hero. So, yeah, I heartily recommend that. And I mean, there are lots of them around if you wanted to find any brief abridged versions or anthologies. Oh, I loved that. I love going back to the USA and I really hope we can return soon. We hope you loved it too. And please, everybody, get in touch with us if you've got questions for Susie or you feel there are names I've not yet dropped but should, do let us know. It's purple at somethingelse.com and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, wherever you get your podcasts and spread the word.

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Yes, indeed. Gully doodle dandy.