Poke You In the Eye or Something

[00:01] All right Jason, I found one a stat that you might like maybe put a little smile on your face. Okay, cool
[00:08] All right. This one is that the average American believes that they are smarter than the average American
[00:17] That makes total sense to me
[00:23] Yeah, 55% of people polled said they were thought they were smarter than the average American
[00:27] Oh, that's lower than I thought it would be
[00:32] 35% thought they were only as smart as everyone else
[00:38] Anyway, and then what there was like 10% of people that were like like, yeah, I'm definitely dumber. Yeah, I don't even understand the question
[00:48] Say it slower and louder, please. I'm definitely real dumb
[00:55] All right
[00:56] We got an undegoogable
[01:06] Undegoogables that was the play of super excited told us we had to
[01:12] I said we signed up for it in the end. It's gonna be better and more true than Google can give you
[01:21] This one came in
[01:23] From listener Neil Sweeney. He's a longtime listener first time caller
[01:29] He says he says his computer was going haywire and on the fritz. He started thinking
[01:36] How's it going in DC question mark?
[01:40] What a time to be alive
[01:43] I think we should address the the going haywire and on the fritz
[01:47] Maybe maybe Jason can answer the going in DC thing. Yeah, no, sure. Shout out to Neil. He's a buddy of mine from Santa Cruz
[01:55] We shared a bay in the lab great guy
[01:59] Pistons fan, but we'll put that aside other than that. Are we allowed to put that aside? I don't know
[02:05] He's the one Pistons fan that I'm okay tolerate
[02:09] All right, and what you realize is that um take your word for it almost every Pistons fan is also a lions fan
[02:18] So you have sympathy for them, yeah
[02:24] Things are going great in DC I suppose
[02:28] We have a new plaza
[02:29] I don't know if you've heard. Oh, yeah, black life matter Plaza
[02:34] Uh, is it because you can't go to Lafayette Square anymore? Yeah, basically
[02:39] Yeah
[02:41] Is it true that uh
[02:43] The uh address of the White House is now 1600 Black Lives Matter Plaza
[02:49] No, but it is at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Black Lives Matter Plaza. Okay. Gotcha
[02:58] So the question
[03:01] I guess is the phrase is going haywire and on the fritz
[03:06] Which one you want to start with
[03:09] I mean the haywire one. Um, oh you already know that this one. I don't know if I know it
[03:14] but I feel like haywire is like
[03:17] uh
[03:18] You know something when you you
[03:21] Uh, when you're bailing, hey, I think you know, you're wrapping it with a wire
[03:26] um
[03:28] And my guess is that there's like some you know, pretty serious tension on those things and
[03:33] A haywire could be dangerous, you know, if it if it broke or if you cut it it like you could
[03:39] you know
[03:40] you know sort of uh
[03:42] Flip off the the bail and poke someone in the eye or something or so. That's good
[03:47] I mean you grew up in in farmland. I mean the rest of us are city folks. So that's right
[03:52] And you worked you did you bailed some hay, right? Uh, I didn't bail. Hey, I did work on a a couple summers. Uh
[04:01] Uh that I drove from the suburbs to to the farms
[04:07] Um
[04:07] But yeah, I worked a couple summers on a farm. It was a corn farm. So no hay there. Okay
[04:13] That makes sense in indiana, but my my my grandfather, um on my mom's side. Uh, you know, he had a
[04:21] My grandparents had a farm
[04:24] Uh, and I did there was some hay out there
[04:27] Um, we would uh, you know, we would spend some time in southeast. Iowa. Uh
[04:33] Playing on the farm. He just kind of opened the doors up
[04:36] Run around is this your grandfather of uh granddad's old fizzy pop fame?
[04:42] Very different. Yeah, I think yeah. Oh same guy. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool
[04:46] So you're saying this is an actual haywire. It's a wire that that holds hay
[04:51] Uh, I and that's my best guess like when you're going haywire is is being
[04:59] uh
[05:00] Like very tense and then
[05:03] Uncoiling when you're snapped and and hurting hitting someone in the eye
[05:08] Yeah, I would say like the haywire could be dangerous. Um
[05:15] But i'm not I mean i'm not 100 sure on that
[05:16] I didn't do like a bunch of the farm work. We just like ran around outside like
[05:20] We let us they let us feed the cows. You were you were going haywire while they were working
[05:25] I don't know. I don't know the definition
[05:29] Quite possibly
[05:31] Does anyone else have a a guess into what a haywire is or what going haywire?
[05:35] I mean, I know what it means. It means it's just you know, I guess we didn't necessarily say the definition but it's it's uh,
[05:41] I just thought it was going crazy
[05:44] It's misbehavings not working correctly. Right
[05:46] um, so I I thought you know, we had a similar not a similar the the last uh
[05:52] Wire under google thing was down to the wire
[05:55] And I thought it was a bomb making. Um
[05:58] reference
[05:59] And when I thought about this phrase when I think about it
[06:05] I think I still think of a bomb
[06:08] and I think the image in my head is a bunch of
[06:12] different wires that are all like
[06:16] Going in opposite directions and they're all tangled up maybe like a bale of hay
[06:22] And so, okay
[06:23] So basically it's it's it's bad. It's it's a it's a bomb that's about to lose control
[06:29] so bomb making bomb defusing
[06:32] essential to every american idiom
[06:35] Well, no
[06:37] What I learned in the last under google is that down to wire is not actually about bomb making it's about horse racing
[06:43] And so I am going to say
[06:46] That the wire they used
[06:49] in horse racing was actually
[06:52] a wire baling, uh
[06:55] You know, uh wire bail or bail wire
[06:59] Um, it actually was a haywire back in the day
[07:02] And so if you're going haywire you're trying to get to the finish line the fastest and you're just losing your mind
[07:10] Okay. Okay. I don't mind that I don't mind that I see where you're going that but one thing for me is like
[07:16] it also to me always
[07:19] Uh had the insinuation of uh things not working correctly
[07:24] You know, right like something wasn't going right
[07:27] Okay, you know
[07:29] Yeah, I think that's at the core of it
[07:31] Right. Yeah
[07:33] Um
[07:34] I
[07:37] yeah, my first inkling I guess was
[07:40] similarly that it derives from
[07:43] The thing that you tied around hay
[07:47] To keep it in place. It's just a it's a it's a hay wire, but I wonder if there's an alternative
[07:57] Thing I mean outside of outside of horse racing and bomb making there are no other wires. There's no other wires. Yeah
[08:03] So there are hay baling machines. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure
[08:10] I mean, how else are you gonna do it? All your farm hands are just running around
[08:14] Just going haywire cavorting
[08:17] In the corn fields
[08:19] I wonder if there's some
[08:23] You know wire that if it gets tripped if the machine's overworked or somehow something screws up
[08:30] Okay, there's a wire that gets tripped or something like that that
[08:35] Yeah
[08:36] Or if it like if it like runs into like a cow or something
[08:44] You know or if it runs over a small child like it just stops for a minute
[08:49] Yeah, some sort of safety mechanism. Yeah
[08:55] It's it's inherent it's something's gone wrong and so it's it's going
[09:00] haywire
[09:03] There's a wire on the front of it. That's just
[09:05] cutting through small children and
[09:09] Shutting off
[09:12] Yeah, I'm I can't think outside the box on this one. I can't get my mind
[09:17] away from that
[09:20] very literal
[09:22] Understanding of a haywire. Should we let's sidebar and think about the other one though. Yeah, let's do that
[09:30] Come back to this. Let's go. Let's sidebar
[09:33] So on the fritz
[09:34] Which somewhere?
[09:36] Similarly means things are not working correctly
[09:40] Seems like it's very specific for electronic devices
[09:44] to me
[09:45] and it's almost
[09:47] like onomatopoeia
[09:49] like it's the
[09:51] It to me is the sound of things shorting out like it's on the fritz
[09:57] Yeah
[10:00] But it maybe it's german. I don't know. Maybe there's some guy. Yeah, that's that's really bad at things. I like onomatopoeia
[10:06] He's like he's like the jerry of germany
[10:10] Oh, well, you know what? So I don't know if this
[10:15] Growing up my grandfather used to always say we were jerry rigging something
[10:20] Which was about you know, the german's rigging stuff up and maybe that's not okay to say anymore. But
[10:27] Back when if you were in war war two, you just said that I don't know if that's racist. We call white people whatever you
[10:34] So we always said jerry rigging stuff, um, and I suppose that
[10:40] You could you fritz could be you could fritz rig something or
[10:45] Right. I don't know. I mean jerry's are german's but
[10:49] Yeah, is that where that term actually comes from though? I've never heard that
[10:52] Yeah, the jerry's are the german's and they screwed stuff up during the war
[10:55] I don't know if it was world war one or war war two, but
[10:59] I'm, not sure if that's where that term came from. Okay. Well, that was what I was told by my grandfather
[11:05] Hmm, I think your grandfather was having some of the grandad's
[11:10] You never you never heard the term jerry rig
[11:13] Of course, I heard the term jerry rig, but
[11:16] I was just making a joke. I don't know
[11:19] I don't know where I'm sorry. I think the jerry's are the german's
[11:22] That is a term for them. Sure. Yeah
[11:26] What where did where did your brain go when he thought about on the fritz?
[11:30] Harper
[11:31] Um, I I went straight german. Okay
[11:37] German engineering guys. Yeah, I kind of thinking that
[11:40] Uh
[11:42] While fritz may not be a saboteur he's the german who doesn't understand engineering so he just goes around and muck stuff up
[11:48] Okay, do you think there's an actual famous fritz or is this just like uh,
[11:52] No, I think all german's are suck at stuff
[11:56] I think that he's really good at engineer. Yeah, I think he's just a stand-in for you know
[12:04] The we we really didn't like the german's for a while is all i'm saying Jason
[12:10] No, but I think okay, but Harper your your thinking is that it comes from
[12:16] like a it's a german saying that then we adopted or
[12:21] It's we're saying the german guy doesn't know what's going on. Come on fritz get it together
[12:26] That's what I was thinking sort of like jerry rigging, right? It's like come on fritz
[12:30] I was more thinking that it was imported by german's
[12:33] Oh, okay fritz represented the you know
[12:36] The local idiot
[12:38] Okay, gotcha. Oh, okay. Sure
[12:41] Fritz is standing for the for the town dummy human grits. Okay
[12:47] Well, okay. I was thinking it was a racial war thing
[12:55] Maybe that's just this day and time is uh, yeah, maybe
[12:59] Although I like the onomatopoeia too. Like it does sound like you like that the best. Yeah, it just sounds like
[13:05] electronics going out it's it's on the fritz
[13:10] Yeah
[13:12] I feel like this term may have predated computers though
[13:16] Yeah, maybe not electronics, right?
[13:22] Stuff can short out that aren't computers, right?
[13:25] Sure
[13:28] Say you're bailing machine
[13:31] Yeah, you're you're you're bailing machines on haywire. It's on the fritz, you know
[13:37] I feel like things with gasoline engines don't make a fritz-y sound
[13:41] Give me a break. Yeah
[13:43] But okay, so so our our general consensus is we think haywire
[13:49] comes
[13:50] from the farm
[13:52] Somewhere in I think it's bomb making or horse racing, but i'll go with the group. I'll go with the group. That's fine
[14:00] falconry
[14:02] Shakes any any chance shakespeare's involved in us there's always a chance
[14:07] Yeah, there's always a chance
[14:12] And we're thinking if it's on the farm. It's probably like
[14:15] Like
[14:17] late 19th
[14:18] Early 20th century because you need a hay baler, right?
[14:22] Once things are starting to get mechanized and yeah
[14:27] Doing stuff because I because I think before you had the hay baler you were just making piles of hay, right?
[14:33] Did you just pitchfork piles of hay? I think you bailed things you like but you just did it by hand. Yeah
[14:45] Yeah
[14:47] So
[14:48] I mean because you want to transport using some sort of twine or something for that right? Yeah
[14:53] Is there a time when that twine turns into something metallic?
[14:59] I think with the baler, right?
[15:01] And at that point certainly it could become dangerous and in fact, wait, I mean
[15:06] I don't feel like
[15:08] I don't
[15:09] Feel like the the bailed hay is even with actual
[15:12] Like metal wire. I feel like it's still just bailed with twine. It's twine. Yeah
[15:18] Like I've I've I've tossed
[15:20] uh
[15:21] Bails before and it's not metal
[15:24] Well, so then maybe that's in twine is like very
[15:29] frey
[15:30] and frayed or whatever so maybe that's just
[15:34] They call it haywire, but it's twine and it's
[15:37] Come if we considered that it's actually hay
[15:40] You know hay is got is wiry and things like that
[15:45] Could be
[15:50] Okay, and then fritz we're going
[15:53] I'm going to go war
[15:55] uh
[15:56] one
[15:58] World war one war war two i'm going war two
[16:02] Yeah
[16:03] I feel like there's more electronics
[16:05] more work
[16:07] There's more things to go on the fritz in world war two
[16:11] Yeah, what are you doing Harper you're going after? Uh,
[16:16] Yeah, I feel like it would be earlier than that
[16:18] okay, um
[16:21] Yeah
[16:22] Early 20th century. So before world war one or kind of around then. Yeah
[16:30] Pre world war one sometime around then
[16:34] German descent
[16:37] And uh Joey are you going on a monopoeia or did you like the uh german stuff?
[16:43] Uh automata pia. Okay
[16:45] That's definitely what I like the best. Yeah, I like that one the best too. What's your time error on that?
[16:51] the dawn of electronics
[16:54] Yeah, I mean because I think people sort of have a problem with electronics as soon as they were created so
[17:00] That is totally true. Um, I immediately would have called you
[17:05] right
[17:06] like my
[17:08] My wireless candle is not working
[17:12] Or wired candle. I don't know. All right. So
[17:15] For haywire, we're kind of close
[17:19] so
[17:21] uh
[17:23] The the meaning is to like likely to become tangled unpredictably or unusable
[17:29] Or fall apart
[17:31] As though bound with the soft the kind of soft springy wire used to bind hay bales
[17:37] comes from usage in england new england lumber camps
[17:42] circa 1905
[17:46] Where haywire outfit became the common term to refer to slapdash
[17:50] collections of login tools
[17:53] So the phrase finder actually says
[17:56] This may be a reference
[17:58] Back to haywire outfits, but it's more likely to be a literal illusion to scrambled haywire
[18:02] Anyone who has handled coils of wire will be familiar with its determination
[18:06] To tangle into your or to gather into an irretrievable tangle
[18:12] So that's both wire and literal
[18:16] This from a u.s forestry bureau bulletin super technical manual there. Yep
[18:23] Corning new idioms
[18:25] It was a described a haywire outfit as a contemptuous term for loggers with poor login equipment
[18:33] Well, this is to colson's this from
[18:37] The guardian.com going hay wires and expression used by electronic engineers in the 40s when the circuit designs were in early experimental stage
[18:44] The wiring more complicated circuits at that stage often are able to massive hay or sometimes unstable in performance. Oh, so
[18:52] So somebody so somebody else uh, like a pump so somebody else came up with the lame idea
[18:58] I did and then tried to make that fact by putting it on the internet because what what date was that?
[19:04] That would have been in the 1940s
[19:07] Okay, so when it came to its
[19:10] Current meaning right? I just that's what I when I thought of it visually that's what I saw
[19:15] But I mean it seems like it was around before then, right?
[19:19] You can see how visually that still is
[19:21] Works, yeah
[19:23] Yeah, not having good luck on all the frets
[19:39] first appeared in
[19:41] about 1902
[19:43] Got the day reading well done Harper
[19:47] But that's about it. This is looking like it's probably of unknown origin
[19:53] Um, some people especially the late
[19:56] John
[19:57] Sia cardi the american poet right onwards of the station might be an imitation of the
[20:02] Noise, so there's your out amount of pia
[20:05] uh-huh
[20:06] This theory falls down because none of the early examples is connected with electrical devices and the phrase predates widespread use of electricity
[20:18] Fritz was a nickname for a german soldier
[20:22] But that didn't really start to appear as a nickname until 1914. So the term was already in use
[20:28] Oh
[20:30] Are you seeing the hans and fritz comic strip? Yeah that comic I just found that yeah
[20:35] from 1897
[20:38] genre kids
[20:40] um
[20:41] And basically they were always mucking things up hans and fritz
[20:46] Getting themselves in mischievous situations. Oh that fritz is such a
[20:56] Yeah, it seems like uh the um
[21:00] the
[21:02] The fact that we didn't like germany definitely helped popularize this for sure
[21:08] But it doesn't mean that's where it came from
[21:12] So I think we kind of nailed both of those
[21:16] Honestly, just as much as we were going to nail it
[21:21] So jury rigged or jerry belt or jerry rigged
[21:27] dates back to the 18th century
[21:29] Oh damn it and it doesn't have to do with juries either. It has to do with some nautical crap
[21:36] Rigging sure I did I was looking that up too and it looks like that
[21:43] So jerry and jury became interchangeable at some point seems
[21:49] And but jury I did not realize this there's another uh meaning of that which is like like temporary or
[21:56] Um
[21:57] Like temporary basis. I think is like which i've never heard that
[22:01] Meaning of it before who's heard about the uh the courtroom
[22:06] And uh, you'll be happy to know coleson that jerry built and I assume jerry rigged is not considered to be a slur
[22:12] Oh good, that does make me feel better. Uh, and it has nothing to do with the germans apparently
[22:17] Uh means your grandad's lied to you
[22:22] That's probably true of all of our grandparents
[22:26] Good for them. I haven't forgiven them for that santa clause first
[22:32] Spoiler alert. All right. Well, um
[22:42] Neil I hope we uh answer your questions and then and more. Yeah
[22:46] Yeah
[22:47] Yeah, it's a good lesson for the for the listeners, you know, you send in two you're likely to get a third one free
[22:52] Exactly by two get one free