strip "pididdle," anyone?

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 03/06/2002 8:20:08 AM Eastern Standard Time,
preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU writes:

> I am also struck by the phonetic resemblance to the Red Skelton bogus
>  hillbilly character "Clem Cadiddlehopper".

My guess is that "Cadiddlehopper" was Red Skelton's variation on the word
"clodhopper".

Two possible ancestors of "pididle":

"diddle", for which the OED2 had numerous 19th century cites, with several
meanings, including "to copulate" (for which two limericks are used as
citations).

      Aside to Jesse---is the OED in the habit of quoting the opening lines
of limericks
      without quoting the punchline?  e.g.
      "There was a young man from Toulouse/Who thought he would diddle a
goose..."

"taradiddle", first OED2 citation 1796, best known from Gilbert and
Sullivan's "Iolanthe": "Taradiddle, taradiddle, tol lol lay"


In a message dated 03/08/2002 12:05:15 AM Eastern Standard Time,
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:

> John J. Fadoozle was the America's #1 Private Eye, as featured on
>  Howdy Doody, airing regularly on CBS around that time. [1956]

Howdy Doody was on NBC, not CBS.  It first appeared December 27, 1947 under
the name "Puppet Playhouse".  The name was changed to "The Howdy Doody Show"
sometime in 1949.  After a run of 2343 shows, the final show was on September
24, 1960.  After having appeared five days a week since June, 1948, on June
16, 1956, "The Howdy Doody Show" went to Saturdays only.

The John J. Fadoozle puppet was built in 1948, originally as a backup for the
Howdy puppet, but NBC executives didn't think the puppet looked like Howdy,
so it was turned into a new character.

There were several properties used in the show that were named "...doodle",
such as the Honk-a-doodle, the Flapdoodle, and the Air-o-doodle.

Source:  Stephen Davis, _Say Kid! What Time Is It: Notes from the Peanut
Gallery_ Boston: LIttle Brown and Company, 1987, ISBN 0-316-17662-1.

     - Jim Landau