Occasionally a Wallaby

[00:00] Next topic we got it's an unto Google ball. I was reminded of a phrase
[00:08] That well the variation of a phrase we were watching a little bit of a little Nemo
[00:17] at our house and
[00:20] the people there are in Australia and
[00:24] There was a scene where a man was saying to another man
[00:27] He said he said I got I need to go see a I need to go see a man about a wall to be
[00:32] And I thought I was pretty funny
[00:34] And then I'd heard the phrase. I guess it refers to the phrase you're gonna see a man about a horse
[00:43] Which I think just means going to the bathroom is that is that what you guys
[00:47] That's the same in the context. I've ever heard it. He was dead
[00:50] Yeah, so the context of the phrase is I'm gonna go see a man about a horse
[00:55] Which just means I'm going to the bathroom
[00:58] Why would the phrase be like that where would that come from I mean I get that it sounds a little bit more polite then
[01:06] You know I'm gonna go
[01:09] blast some dookie or you know or just
[01:13] urinates or head to the restroom
[01:17] But why that phrase who's ever going to who's ever going to see a man about a horse
[01:38] Super excited told us we had to
[01:43] We signed up for it in the end it's going to be better and more true than google can give you
[01:51] Well is is is it just the polite construction of i've got a piss like a race horse
[01:57] Yeah, that's the way I always took it was that it was it was it was a specifically you had to go number one
[02:03] okay, and
[02:06] Yeah, I I like Harper thought it was a derivative of that
[02:12] But why anyone has to piss like a racehorse or really even how a racehorse pisses I don't know very much about
[02:19] I assume for a long time. Uh, yeah, I assume
[02:23] For a long time and with a lot of vicar
[02:28] When the story with that is and I I am
[02:31] I'm assuming this is the case, but I think i'd heard that they don't let you know
[02:36] They they let horses drink a bunch before a race and then they don't let them pee because it
[02:42] Motivates them to run faster. Is that is that a saying what like?
[02:46] seems like well extra weight
[02:48] Yeah, that's what I said, but that but otherwise, I mean, otherwise, I don't know why pissing like a racehorse even makes sense
[02:55] So you're saying that they tie it off. So you're saying I don't know man
[02:59] I mean, I guess they do. I don't know how else you're gonna stop them
[03:05] No, that's how you make a bronco buck I think like that's not yeah, oh
[03:11] Yeah
[03:13] Jab them with electricity
[03:16] Right. Yeah
[03:20] Yeah, I yeah, I guess I I always thought it was that it was just an impressive feat to see a horse
[03:25] Yeah
[03:27] Urinate yeah. Oh like they just be good at it. Yeah. Yeah, and they're impressive
[03:33] Yeah, and so our racehorse is not especially good at this in that scenario rather than you know, draft horses or something
[03:40] Say Clydesdale. Yeah
[03:43] I don't know. I guess I guess it just a racehorse is the most common thing that you see maybe I guess I don't know
[03:49] I would think that would be the least common thing you would see
[03:53] Most farmers probably have horses of some kind. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah
[03:57] But maybe they're the most impressive specimen of the type
[04:02] Hmm
[04:03] Let's go say maybe like if it was a city guy who just has a degenerate problem watching horse racing
[04:08] But yeah, also you've got you know, depending on what era
[04:12] Everything's written, you know driven by a horse
[04:15] So even if you're not a farmer and you're a city guy, right?
[04:18] You're taking your horse drawing carriages to the
[04:21] I don't know ballet. What do people do?
[04:25] I mean at some point that was
[04:28] I mean, that was yeah the best way to get anywhere
[04:30] so
[04:31] You guys have directly connected a piss like a racehorse to see a man about a horse
[04:37] And I have never connected those things
[04:41] For some reason I always thought it was like I connected it more to don't look a gift horse in the mouth
[04:48] Um, because you're like somebody gives you a horse and then you don't want to like check it out because it's kind of a bum deal
[04:54] um
[04:55] I was like
[04:56] seeing a guy about a horse is like a stupid thing that I
[05:01] Don't really need to do because it's going to be nobody's giving away horses
[05:05] Sort of thing
[05:07] So it was just it was just sort of what's the most ridiculous thing you can say you're going to do instead of go pee
[05:12] That's how I sort of heard it
[05:15] Now that i'm listening to this maybe I always heard it as I got to see a man about a mule
[05:20] Is that something different? I don't think I've ever heard it that way. That was a horse. Okay
[05:26] I always thought about it was thought was a horse
[05:29] And apparently a wallaby
[05:31] And well that occasionally is a wall occasionally
[05:34] That's when that's
[05:35] Is that when waywen goes to bed you watch little nemo?
[05:39] You know, we started it and
[05:41] It was a little more intense than we thought it was
[05:45] And at one point he's like this is crazy and I was like, yeah, it's kind of crazy
[05:49] Let's turn this off and we did not finish it
[05:54] The shark like there were some shark scenes that were a little more
[05:59] Aggressive little violent is finding nemo. They were
[06:02] A little bit. I mean there's some shark shark was chasing
[06:07] Some little fish that were defenseless and it was a little scary for everybody
[06:11] Hmm
[06:13] Probably not the shark
[06:15] No, the shark. Well, you know what? It was a scary moment for itself because he was trying to stop eating fish and
[06:22] He had a lapse
[06:24] And so, you know, he had a look at himself I think after that as well tough to be a vegetarian shark
[06:32] Very tough
[06:34] So he stopped eating fish because he was only eating humans
[06:37] Is that us
[06:39] They did say they were saying specifically fish they didn't want to eat. So gotcha. So yeah
[06:45] People are no problem. Yeah
[06:47] Horse is probably fine
[06:49] Yeah, no wallabies
[06:51] So you'd think colson that it's just it outlandishness it's inane i'm gonna i'm gonna go over around the corner
[07:00] And piss but i'm actually i'm gonna go around the corner and see a man about a horse
[07:03] Just stupid I guess that makes more sense if you were like outside
[07:08] I think I don't think people say it inside do they?
[07:12] I think he could say it wherever I feel like it's only been said to me like in camping situations. Maybe hmm. Okay
[07:20] I had somebody say to me at a bar
[07:22] Yeah, okay. Sure. Yeah, that's the only place where I hear it. Yeah. No, you're right. It's it's yeah bar
[07:28] Was it a western bar? Was it a cowboy bar?
[07:31] No, it was going on
[07:33] Was there a bronching bronching bunk buck? No, and well and the guy that said it to me was a british dude
[07:40] Which hmm?
[07:41] I don't know if that makes it weird
[07:44] I assumed strongly this was an american construction
[07:49] But either he really he's been in the u.s for a long time, but he's definitely
[07:55] Has a you know a good british accent. Yeah
[07:58] Yeah, i'm gonna go see a man about a horse. Is that an horse?
[08:07] That was my that was my question. So you've been thinking about it. Joey. What are your uh, when do you think people started saying this?
[08:17] I mean
[08:19] i'd say
[08:20] pre
[08:22] Pre internet pre internet pre moon landing i'd say
[08:29] pre
[08:31] Pre-forward pre-forward so pretty automobile free flight
[08:36] Pre-flight
[08:38] so i'd say
[08:40] anywhere between
[08:42] the beginning of time and
[08:44] the 1800s
[08:47] So i'd say the 1800s
[08:49] You don't see in the beginning of time. I mean when did they invent horses Joey?
[08:55] That's a whole other topic and uh
[08:58] Hold my bible out here. I'm gonna tell you
[09:02] About 5000 years ago
[09:05] no, the the
[09:07] No, i'd say
[09:09] I mean, I guess you know when alcohol, you know, alcohol is one thing that makes you go to the bathroom more and less and I guess
[09:16] caffeine does too, but I I would associate this with
[09:20] drinking
[09:21] Because you're going to the bathroom more and when horses were popular more popular
[09:26] And
[09:28] I'd say late 1800s
[09:31] In kentucky because that's where the horses are the biggest, right?
[09:35] Sure, I was gonna say horses probably were more popular
[09:39] um
[09:40] I don't know before then
[09:44] Somebody go before then
[09:46] I'm saying horses were pretty you know
[09:49] By by late 1800s. We were figuring other things out besides horses, right?
[09:54] Like what we had like trains and stuff
[09:57] I mean
[09:59] For like longer things
[10:02] There's walking, you know, we figured that out by late 1800s. Yeah, we did we did nail that by the late 1800s
[10:09] I'm gonna i'm gonna say that this is uh shakespeare. Yeah
[10:13] Yeah, and it's some one of his comedies
[10:15] Yeah, that's what I was gonna go with too because now I think it's british because your british buddy said it
[10:22] It's like much ado about nothing or something. Yeah
[10:24] I'll take I'll take uh, i'll take british, but i'll take industrial revolution when they were figuring out walking
[10:32] Okay
[10:34] So
[10:35] After this I want to talk about
[10:38] I want to talk about how uh, what we did for locomotion before
[10:43] Before we were walking but that's another another topic
[10:47] for episode 7 40
[10:49] 742
[10:52] I'm gonna go. I think it's like a flapper era
[10:56] Like a euphemism that came about to bees knees. No, that's later, isn't it?
[11:02] I love the bees knees. That's same area. Okay
[11:06] And it comes from
[11:09] Falconry
[11:15] No, I mean these things it's probably horse racing right these things are always horse racing why can't it just be from horse racing
[11:21] Yeah, that just seems a bit on the nose
[11:24] Yeah
[11:26] All right, Joey what you got? You said horse racing in 1800s
[11:32] boy
[11:34] The first thing that came up for me frickin horse racing
[11:41] So the the things i'm seeing at least first
[11:44] are
[11:45] It was a way to discreetly excuse yourself from a situation to eat to either
[11:51] use the restroom
[11:54] Or buy a drink under the guise of horse betting on a horse
[12:01] So seeing a man about a horse would be
[12:04] Betting on that horse. So it's still legal to bet on horses, but it's illegal to drink during prohibition in the united states
[12:10] That's what i'm saying
[12:12] Well, so you'd say you're gonna go see a man about a horse to go get a drink
[12:16] Yeah, I don't know you're at a place where you can do that already, right? So it's like the
[12:21] gambling addiction is somehow
[12:23] More fine. Yeah, that's somehow better than either peeing or drinking
[12:32] Okay, so this says that uh, the earliest confirmed publication is the 1866
[12:39] uh
[12:40] buco
[12:42] play
[12:43] flying scud
[12:45] Which a character knowingly breezes past a difficult situation saying excuse me. Mr quail. I can't stop i've got to see a man about a dog
[12:54] um
[12:56] Time magazine observed that the phrase was the place claimed to fame
[13:00] Yeah, wick sherry has it as a variant of see a man about a dog as well
[13:05] I'm seeing dog and horse is essentially interchangeable
[13:09] Which you also raise dogs after all. Yes, right and then apparently in new castle
[13:16] New castle brown they all commonly game the nickname of dog from the frequent use of the phrase to describe going to the pub
[13:24] Huh interesting because you're seeing a man about a dog
[13:27] We we're not seeing anything about shakespeare though, right? No, also i'm not seeing anything about you guys seen anything on
[13:34] dates on this
[13:35] Well, like I said, I got the six was yeah. Yeah, okay
[13:39] Deon
[13:41] bossy come see call
[13:43] busicle cool
[13:45] That seems to be fairly consistent across what i'm looking at
[13:50] So he wrote a
[13:52] Play comedy thing and uh, everybody loved it
[13:57] and then it was uh
[13:59] done as a radio program
[14:02] in a 1939 revival
[14:05] and that's where time
[14:07] Observed that the phrase was the place claimed to fame and almost all of these it's for
[14:14] Going to the restroom or I don't know why buying a drink i've never heard it used in that way
[14:22] You're I think it's because you're leaving the house to go get a drink. It's not you're nobody's saying that at the bar, right?
[14:28] You're like don't ask me where i'm going
[14:30] Correct. Yeah
[14:31] So you're definitely going somewhere
[14:34] But why do you need a phrase to be like yeah, don't ask me where i'm going like
[14:38] In that scenario you're going to the place where you're not supposed to be going like why are you talking about?
[14:42] right
[14:43] Well, you need a cover
[14:46] I guess this is a bad cover. This is a terrible cover
[14:49] This is the this is the i'm obviously lying
[14:53] Don't ask me about it cover
[14:55] But I think that you wait depending on who you're talking to if you were
[15:00] maybe in a typical
[15:02] relationship in
[15:04] The mid, you know to mid the late 1800s
[15:08] Maybe you would just as maybe the man would just tell his wife
[15:11] An obvious lie and say hey
[15:14] This is what's happening
[15:15] I'm gonna go see a man about a horse
[15:18] And i'll take no follow-up questions
[15:20] Yeah, it seems like you could use it at work too. And so everybody's sort of like wink wink
[15:25] We know what you're doing sort of thing. But yeah, you have a excuse
[15:34] So you're yeah, you're just basically saying hey i'm gonna go have a drink real fast boss i'll be back or yeah
[15:42] Seems not great. I only saw that mentioned once
[15:45] To drink one. Yeah
[15:47] I mean if it's just openly code during prohibition, I guess that makes some some sense to me. Yeah
[15:54] Uh, so pissed like a racehorse it seems like came around
[16:00] in 1982 what
[16:03] Seems late does seem late
[16:09] This is from uh today I found out.com
[16:13] Uh, it says when most horses take a leak it is a dramatic site
[16:19] With the three with the stream typically about one third to one half of an inch in diameter
[16:26] Creating a veritable river of urine. Let's see
[16:33] Race horses are conditioned not to pee before a race
[16:39] How do you condition that
[16:42] Well
[16:43] I think just so it's not on the track probably is why you do it
[16:49] I mean you could yeah and you could
[16:51] teach a
[16:52] Horse to pee wherever right horses are pretty smart. Yeah
[16:57] But I mean when you gotta go you gotta go man
[17:01] So yeah, i'm seeing this as well. So, uh piss like a racehorse in 1982
[17:08] Pissed like a horse became popular in the 1970s
[17:13] uh, so
[17:15] pissed like a horse
[17:17] Uh was first documented in the new american review in 1969
[17:22] It's wild
[17:27] The the noise of straining tractors
[17:30] Uncles who were proud to piss they proud they could piss like a horse
[17:34] And who ingested certain liquids to permit them to continue to blah blah blah blah blah and then pissed like a racehorse from
[17:42] 1982
[17:43] In the book ground rush by greg baron
[17:51] English stack exchange says that the popularity of pissed like a racehorse revitalized the expression
[17:58] Seeing a man about a horse
[18:00] I don't know if that's speculation or not, but I like it
[18:03] leslie donaldson says that uh
[18:06] Hissing like a racehorse came with the tactics of using diuretics on horses prior to races. Yeah
[18:12] I saw that a horse dragged a seven year rose for rosa mead became legalized in horse racing in
[18:18] The 70s. Yeah, it says a horse might pass 10 to 15 liters of urine
[18:26] And that's seems to be
[18:28] You'd use that so they'd be lighter. Yeah, which makes sense
[18:31] Because right like we were saying Jason. You don't want you don't want a heavier horse
[18:36] uh, so it was british
[18:38] so
[18:39] Um Harper you were right on that and it was late 1800s, which Joey was right
[18:46] So we nailed it, right
[18:48] nailed it
[18:51] And the reasoning just seems to be
[18:53] Because it sounds a little bit more polite than
[18:56] Or you just don't want to give information
[18:59] Yeah, it's it's a you're being discreet. Uh
[19:02] Yeah
[19:04] Except you're not because everybody knows what you're openly saying i'm gonna go have a drink or you're openly saying i'm gonna go
[19:10] Take a piss or whatever. Yeah, because the purpose of language is to convey ideas. So
[19:15] Yeah
[19:17] Piss itself, uh traces to uh, old french
[19:21] pisier
[19:22] Mmm, not bad tracks twelve hundreds
[19:26] This
[19:27] crass medieval frenchmen
[19:30] that's right
[19:31] Love how
[19:33] Yeah, the that phrase the piss comes from
[19:36] the french and then
[19:38] Deca, you know that it just moves
[19:40] Language is weird, man
[19:45] If we've learned anything on this show it's that language is weird shakespeare probably did it
[19:53] But didn't this time?
[19:59] Well, i'm glad we talked about that because it's it's not something that comes up often for me, but
[20:04] It was always baffling. I got it. I figured it out. You know, I just picked up on the context clues
[20:09] We talked about this. I'm good at that. Uh, you know, I'd never
[20:13] I'd never heard the phrase until I phrase it at least that I noticed until I was
[20:18] an adult and
[20:21] And I was a little confused
[20:25] Well, I think you need to start using this phrase often around way when so he doesn't have the same, you know
[20:30] Experience he can just know from a young age what it means
[20:36] Yeah
[20:38] I mean i'll do it for you if you want. I'll just I mean especially use it when you're excusing yourself to see your mistress, you know
[20:48] And if you ask for clarification i'll say up no follow-up questions