Cave Kiss; Cave Bacon; Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling, stalagmites might

[Baker, John]

        I heard "cave kiss" about 8 or 10 years ago when touring a cave
in Bermuda, so it seems to have good geographic distribution, even
though Google only reports 40 hits for "'cave kiss' drop" (just "cave
kiss" by itself gets 531 hits, but most are false hits).  Tour guides
apparently say this so that visitors will not complain about getting
wet.  It definitively worked for my daughter, then about 5 or 6; she was
thrilled to have gotten cave kisses.  The New Orleans Times-Picayune
(via Westlaw) has this from 2/7/1999, also about Bermuda (in fact, the
same cave I was in, and at about the same time):

        <<Puttering off on the moped, my body still as immobile as a
mannequin, we headed for the limestone Crystal Caves.

        "Show time!" proclaimed Susan Palmer, a guide with the dramatic
flair of a Broadway actress and a lilting, singsong accent. Step
gingerly, she warned her tour members descending into the underworld --
81 steps down. "Those drops like rain from the ceiling, we call them
cave kisses," she said. Drip, drip, drip ...>>

        My mnemonic is that stalactites have a C for Ceiling, while
stalagmites have a G for Ground.  Boring, but it works for me.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
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Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 2:07 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Cave Kiss; Cave Bacon; Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling,
stalagmites might

I recently took some guests to the Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown,
Texas, discovered during the construction of I-35.
...
The cavern tour guide explained "cave kiss"--a drop of water that falls
from the ceiling. If it hits you, it's good luck. "Cave kiss" is not in
OED or HDAS?
...
"Cave bacon" seems standard.
...
The old "stalactite=hold tight to ceiling" and "stalagmite=might rise up
from the floor" was implied to have been made up by this tour guide, but
in fact goes back to at least the 1800s! None of us has researched this
saying?

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