Thank you ma'am; Kiss me (bump or dip in road)

Thu Jul 14 14:46:15 UTC 2011

I played padiddle back in the 60's.  ~puddidool

Tom Zurinskas, first Ct 20 yrs, then Tn 3, NJ 33, Fl 9.
Learn the alphabet and sounds of US English at justpaste.it/ayk

 > 
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Thank you ma'am; Kiss me (bump or dip in road)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The only printed reference to "padiddle" that I can recall seeing was in the
> National Lampoon around 1980. I'd never heard of the game, so the passage
> made no sense to me.
> 
> At all.
> 
> JL
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 11:17 PM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:
> 
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> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> > Subject: Re: Thank you ma'am; Kiss me (bump or dip in road)
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > My parents, both of them born and raised in Indianapolis, taught me
> > padiddle
> > when I was a kid in the 50's in California. Guy says it first, he gets to
> > kiss the girl. Girl says it first, she has her choice of punching, kissing,
> > or whatever else she may want to do. My version of bread and butter, also
> > learned from my Hoosier parents, is: a) Bread and Butter, b) split in two,
> > a) a piece for me, b) a piece for you. This of course means that speaker a)
> > ends up with both pieces. I only picked up Jinx from my daughter about 10
> > ago. Her version, learned from English-speaking friends in Rio de Janeiro:
> > jinxed person cannot speak until someone says the jinxed person's name.
> > Padiddle story: when I lived in England in the 80's, I was driving along,
> > at
> > night, with a Brit colleague as passenger, and I mentioned: "You know, in
> > the US we have a game, called padiddle." And I explained the deal about
> > seeing a car with one headlight. And then continued: "I mention this
> > because
> > here I never see a car with one headlight." Brit said: "Well, yes. It's an
> > offence." His attitude was that "Of course, if it is an offence, it doesn't
> > happen." Pretty funny.
> > DAD
> >
> >
> > : Re: Thank you ma'am; Kiss me (bump or dip in road)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---
> >
> > The "kiss from any handy female" bit reminds me of "padiddle" (which I
> > understand is sometimes transcribed "perdiddle", a natural variation since
> > it seems to be a Northeast (NY, NJ) tradition. If a male and female are
> > driving down a road at night and the former spots a car with just one
> > headlight on he calls "padiddle" and gets to kiss the latter. If the
> > latter
> > identifies the padiddle first, she gets to slap him--or, on another variant
> > I recall hearing although I never experienced it myself, she gets to either
> > slap or kiss him, as she chooses. My memory of padiddles goes back to the
> > early 60s in the NYC and Rochester areas. It didn't turn into
> > slam-bam-thankyou-ma'ams, it just kind of faded away, even though padiddles
> > (the cars, not the tradition) can still be seen.
> >
> > Just checking the web, I find this account from Grant, not dissimilar to
> > what I recall:
> >
> >
> > http://thestar.com.my/english/story.asp?file=/2008/4/16/lifefocus/20816255&s
> > ec=lifefocus<http://thestar.com.my/english/story.asp?file=/2008/4/16/lifefocus/20816255&sec=lifefocus>
> >
> > LH
> >
> >
> > On Jul 13, 2011, at 8:03 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> >
> > > Jonathan Lighter wrote
> > >> The HDAS files have several exx. in addition to that from 1890. The
> > >> documentation of "wham-bam, thank you ma'am" as a sexual allusion,
> > however,
> > >> does not begin until the WWII era.
> > >>
> > >> My understanding (from God knows where) is that the early custom
> > (ca1890)
> > >> was that when a wagon hit a bump in the road, any male involved could
> > demand
> > >> a kiss from any handy female. Hence the "Thank you ma'am!"
> > >>
> > >> But it culd be BS.
> > >
> > > This message continues a discussion of "wham-bam-thank-you ma'am!" by
> > > focusing on the phrases "thank you ma'am" and 'kiss me." First, thanks
> > > to Wilson Gray, George Thompson, Dan Goncharoff, Jonathan Lighter,
> > > Robin Hamilton, and Victor Steinbok for comments on the thread called
> > > "Phrase: the old, slam-bang, thank-you-ma'ams (automobile tires circa
> > > 1925 probably)"
> > >
> > > The OED (2nd edition) has an entry for "thank-you-ma'am" that includes
> >
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> 
> 
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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