Earmuffs

[00:00] Don't we have an un-Google-able?
[00:01] Oh, can we do an un-Google-ables?
[00:10] That was the play of it.
[00:11] I'm super excited.
[00:12] You told us we had to, sir.
[00:14] He said we signed up for it.
[00:19] In the end, it's going to be better and more true than Google can give you.
[00:23] I do. I actually have two.
[00:29] They'll probably both be brief because you guys are so smart.
[00:33] One was a submission from a fan
[00:37] and also our social media director, Erin Triplett.
[00:43] She wanted to know about the phrase,
[00:46] little pictures with big ears.
[00:51] Say what?
[00:52] Yeah, the phrase is little picture with big ears.
[00:55] Is this picture like a...
[00:58] I have never heard this phrase before.
[01:01] That's why I thought we should talk about it.
[01:03] I assume it means...
[01:05] I assume it's some sort of jab at people with small heads
[01:10] and then you have...
[01:12] Little picture has big ears.
[01:14] So this is like what you would call CJ Miles, I guess.
[01:18] Exactly. It's the...
[01:21] CJ Miles, you're a little picture with big ears.
[01:24] Huge guy, really small head.
[01:27] I don't know...
[01:28] I've never even heard the phrase.
[01:30] It must be a phrase.
[01:32] I'm going to say CJ Miles is where that phrase came from
[01:36] because I have no evidence to the contrary.
[01:40] So I guess the idea is that a small picture has a big handle
[01:46] and then that would be like a person with a small head with big ears.
[01:50] How about like a loving cup?
[01:53] Who?
[01:55] There's another term I've never heard of.
[01:57] Two handles like big ears, yeah.
[02:02] But what is it a metaphor for?
[02:06] Well, I don't know. I've never heard the phrase.
[02:09] Disproportionate allocation of resources or something like that?
[02:17] I think so.
[02:18] So if I'm going to extend my loving cup guess here,
[02:22] I'm going to say that it's cheaper to make the handles than the cup.
[02:26] So you can make the cup look bigger.
[02:28] Bigger, sure.
[02:29] With bigger handles.
[02:31] That's why you trim the bushes to make the tree look bigger, right?
[02:38] Jonathan Coalson.
[02:49] No, so financial is what you're saying.
[02:53] It's a financial statement.
[02:54] Sure, so you're trying to make an impressive looking trophy
[02:56] but spend less money, so...
[03:00] Oh, okay, I see. Okay.
[03:02] I like that.
[03:03] I like that. I like that.
[03:05] And when do we think this came about?
[03:07] This is like Middle Ages.
[03:09] This is Shakespeare.
[03:11] Well, what are they doing?
[03:12] I mean, they've been making pottery forever, right?
[03:15] Oh, yeah. I mean, this goes back to ancient Greeks.
[03:19] But when did they start putting handles on pottery?
[03:22] Hmm.
[03:23] Oh, even way back then.
[03:25] Greeks.
[03:26] Yeah, for sure.
[03:27] I think this is maybe Pliny the Elder.
[03:31] This is one of his phrases.
[03:34] Go on, Pliny the Junior.
[03:41] I think the Junior.
[03:42] What about Homer?
[03:45] Is it Homer?
[03:47] Okay.
[03:48] Ode to a Grecian urn.
[03:51] Well, yeah, maybe this is straight up a line.
[03:54] Ode to a Grecian urn?
[03:57] Ode on a Grecian urn.
[03:59] Must be two.
[04:01] Ode on a Grecian urn with big ears.
[04:04] Joey, what do you got? What do you think?
[04:08] This is nothing that I'm familiar with at all.
[04:12] Something they say in New York, apparently.
[04:15] Forget about it.
[04:17] Forget about it.
[04:19] One of them big city terms.
[04:21] I got your big ears right here.
[04:24] That's something I know how to say.
[04:26] I don't know.
[04:30] Little bit.
[04:32] Big ears.
[04:34] So, I like that since the handles are cheaper,
[04:39] maybe that's how you do flair for something that's fairly crappy, right?
[04:43] You just...
[04:45] Yeah.
[04:47] I also don't know...
[04:49] All I heard was the phrase.
[04:51] I don't know...
[04:52] I have no idea what it means.
[04:54] I've never heard of it before.
[04:56] If I had heard it used in a sentence, you know.
[04:59] Right.
[05:01] Like a spelling bee situation.
[05:04] Yeah.
[05:06] Right.
[05:08] Yusuf Nurkic is big.
[05:10] Yeah, so that's not real helpful.
[05:12] Yeah, exactly.
[05:16] Alright, here we go.
[05:18] Dictionary.com says...
[05:20] Adults must be careful about what they say within the hearing of children.
[05:24] The saying refers to the large handles, ears,
[05:27] sometimes attached to small vessels.
[05:30] This metaphoric expression, which likens the curved handle
[05:34] A picture to the human ear was already in John Hayward's proverb collection
[05:38] of 1546.
[05:40] Ooh, that's old.
[05:42] That's chausery.
[05:44] Is it...
[05:46] Pliner the elderly, though?
[05:48] I don't know about that.
[05:50] It's really not even chausery. That's more Shakespearean.
[05:53] So, they're saying...
[05:55] Children?
[05:57] So, children have small heads and big ears?
[05:59] Basically, yeah.
[06:03] Well, I think, maybe not that, like, literally big ears, but...
[06:07] You know, that they hear everything.
[06:09] They hear and understand more than you want them to.
[06:12] Oh, yes. Clearly they do.
[06:14] That's why you're supposed to do ear muffs.
[06:17] Yes, on the kids.
[06:19] Yes, exactly. Ear muffs. That solves everything.
[06:21] Ooh.
[06:23] We also see it used in Shakespeare's Richard III about a half century later.
[06:27] We didn't get the metaphor down, though.
[06:29] We didn't know it was kids listening to stuff.
[06:32] I appreciate the listener's submission.
[06:36] I didn't even know the phrase existed, and now I know more than I did before.
[06:42] Coalson, I'm looking for a challenge. Do you have an undegoogleable for us?
[06:49] I do. This is coming from our previous undegoogleables.
[06:55] So, while on Undebedicon, Jason, you had a great one, let the cat out of the bag.
[07:02] And we learned that one of the possible things from that was taking the catanine tails out of the bag.
[07:12] And so, I was thinking about that, and I just assume, and we don't even do Google it,
[07:18] I just assume that a cat has nine lives from catanine tails, right?
[07:25] So, that's where we get that phrase, that each whippy just keeps hurting, and it has nine lives.
[07:33] So, I just have decided that, and maybe we can Google it, but that's what I'm learning from this pod.
[07:40] But then I started thinking, there's so many great cat idioms, right?
[07:48] Sure.
[07:50] I kind of started going through my head on ones that I kind of understood,
[07:55] and pussyfooting around kind of makes sense, you know?
[07:59] You've got little late cat steps and all that stuff, but a cat got your tongue.
[08:05] That one makes no sense to me, and I would like to talk about where that could come from.
[08:10] Cats got your tongue.
[08:15] Can you use it in a... I mean, I vaguely know the context of when it is used,
[08:24] but can you give me a sense of what you think it means when somebody says...
[08:32] Yeah, so...
[08:33] What, the cat's got your tongue or something?
[08:35] Cat got your tongue?
[08:36] Yeah, yeah, so it's when you're trying to say something,
[08:41] and you're not quite either comfortable saying it or don't quite have the words for it.
[08:45] I think it's normally an emotional thing, though.
[08:48] That was my understanding of it, right?
[08:49] So, like, you'd like to tell somebody something important,
[08:52] but you don't quite have the words for it?
[08:54] That's kind of my understanding of the meaning of it.
[08:57] Okay.
[08:58] And so you kind of stumble and stammer, or you don't say anything, maybe,
[09:03] and then so somebody says, what is it, cat got your tongue?
[09:09] Yeah, this is a tough one.
[09:14] I can't quite wrap my head around...
[09:18] Because a cat doesn't grab a human tongue, right?
[09:22] Like, maybe does a cat grab like a...
[09:27] You know, cats that come from, like, the tongue of the shoe?
[09:31] Okay, oh, okay.
[09:35] I mean, Joey, you grew up with cats, Jason, right?
[09:38] I've had cats.
[09:39] We've all had cats, right?
[09:41] Yeah, yeah.
[09:42] They play with shoes.
[09:44] Yeah, but, you know, the discussion is always about not saying something.
[09:50] Right.
[09:51] Right.
[09:54] Okay, so it actually is about your mouth, then, right?
[09:56] So it actually would be about not saying something, so...
[10:01] Maybe it comes from, you know, you would stumble
[10:07] and maybe it sounded like you had a hairball or something like that,
[10:10] and so it'd be like, oh, you sounded like a cat.
[10:13] What do you mean?
[10:16] That's my hairball impression.
[10:18] Something like that.
[10:19] That's your hairball impression?
[10:21] Sounds like you didn't grow up with cats.
[10:23] Gosh, sorry, listeners.
[10:29] No, okay, I like that.
[10:31] So when do we think this phrase came about?
[10:34] Is this, like, one of them, the cat's pajamas, sort of, like, 1920s?
[10:40] Bees knees.
[10:41] Everybody's talking about cats.
[10:43] Hepcats.
[10:47] No, I don't want to say this is earlier than that.
[10:49] Okay.
[10:52] I want to say it goes back to falconry.
[10:56] Falconry.
[10:57] So ancient times.
[10:59] Chaucer.
[11:00] Roman times.
[11:02] Potentially, yeah.
[11:07] I don't know.
[11:08] What about this?
[11:10] What about when, in the Colosseum, when lions would eat people?
[11:19] Oh.
[11:20] They might have more than your tongue.
[11:22] Cat would have your tongue and then some.
[11:24] So, yeah, you don't say the cat's got your face.
[11:31] What's the matter?
[11:32] Cat ate your entire body?
[11:36] Yeah.
[11:37] What's the matter?
[11:38] Is a lion eating your innards?
[11:39] Yeah, you don't go with that.
[11:40] Yeah.
[11:42] I feel like that's going to be it.
[11:43] I think we should bring that phrase into vogue.
[11:47] But I do feel like that could be a cool catchphrase after somebody gets eaten.
[11:58] What's the matter?
[12:00] Cat ate your face?
[12:01] Lion eating your innards?
[12:06] You're always looking for cool catchphrases after somebody gets eaten.
[12:09] Yeah.
[12:10] It's good, yeah.
[12:13] It's like a cat on a hot tin roof, right?
[12:15] What does that mean?
[12:16] There's just a ton of cat phrases.
[12:17] This crazy cat lady is just coming up with stuff.
[12:20] It probably doesn't mean anything.
[12:21] There's probably no history to it.
[12:25] Do you think there's not an answer to it?
[12:27] I don't know.
[12:28] All right, so let's Google this one.
[12:32] Okay, so according to grammarly.com, it goes back to the cat on nine tails.
[12:43] What?
[12:44] The pain was so severe that it caused the victim to stay quiet for a long time.
[12:48] Ah.
[12:49] Another possible source could be from ancient Egypt where liars and blasphemer's tongues
[12:55] were cut out and fed to the cats.
[12:57] Oh, I like that one.
[12:59] That's closer to my lion eating.
[13:01] I think I like that one even better.
[13:02] Yeah, that's closer to my lion eating somebody's face thing.
[13:05] Yeah.
[13:06] So they would just like what?
[13:07] Like throw the tongue to the feral cats?
[13:10] Well, they just cut it off and toss it behind them and there's just cats everywhere.
[13:14] Okay.
[13:15] I imagine in ancient Egypt.
[13:16] Well, sure, sure.
[13:17] They worship the cats.
[13:18] They like those cats.
[13:19] Yeah.
[13:20] Oh, that's way better.
[13:22] That's way darker than I thought it was going to be.
[13:24] But I like it a lot.
[13:28] So it isn't found in print until 1881 in the U.S. Illustrated paper, Ballou's Monthly Magazine,
[13:38] where it says, has the cat got your tongue, as the children say.
[13:43] And this site, phrases.org suggests that its origin may be much earlier than the 1880s, since
[13:59] children's language wasn't written down.
[14:02] Right.
[14:06] This site, which I don't trust, suggests that it's related to a witch's cat, who would steal
[14:16] the tongue of a person to prevent them from telling important things.
[14:25] The phrase is usually used when someone has the upper hand in a conversation and the person
[14:32] who cannot counter is to say that the cat has their tongue.
[14:40] This is, again, an under-Google Bowl, and it seems like I don't know which of these websites
[14:47] to trust.
[14:48] Right.
[14:49] Yeah.
[14:50] None of these are.
[14:52] The one I was on earlier just dismissed the cat and nine tails and the cutting the tongue
[14:58] out thing, but didn't really have a reason for it.
[15:02] Interesting.
[15:03] We learned lots of things today.
[15:08] So I think we can add, yeah.
[15:11] So what we've learned is, so there's, it starts, there's a Pliny the Elder.
[15:18] Okay.
[15:19] Falconry.
[15:20] Right.
[15:21] Shakespeare.
[15:22] Shakespeare.
[15:23] Seafaring vessels.
[15:24] Okay.
[15:25] Right.
[15:27] And that's about it, basically.
[15:28] Is the source of things.
[15:29] Well, potentially Egyptian Kings now as well.
[15:32] Well, yeah.
[15:33] But I mean, but, but I mean, so yeah, so, but our main standards, I would say, are go-tos.
[15:42] If we go to those.
[15:43] I want to add, yeah.
[15:44] Merchant vessels to our mainstays.
[15:45] Yeah.
[15:46] I think we should.
[15:47] For sure.
[15:48] Mainstays.
[15:49] Yeah.
[15:50] I like those.
[15:52] I think lots of things come from Twitter too.
[15:53] Okay.
[15:54] Yeah.
[15:55] So if we guess one of those four things, we're probably going to be right.
[15:59] You're pretty good.
[16:00] Everything's from Twitter.
[16:01] Mm-hmm.