Say What

War, pandemics, politics, soap, cigarettes – it’s all propaganda. Whether it’s coming from the left or the right, your party or the opposition, coke or pepsi, propaganda rules our lives.

The father of public relations, Edward Bernays, tells us as early as 1928 that we are governed and molded, our tastes formed, by nameless people. He also tells us that we need a greater power, whether a government or business, to tell us how to live our lives. And he should know as he created the infamous “Torches of Freedom” cigarette ad aimed at convincing women to take up smoking as a feminist act of defiance at a time when smoking, for women, was improper. And the feminists ate it up. Why my sisters!

Propaganda, from Themistocles in 480BCE to pamphlet bombs, we have farmers and Catholic Cardenals to thank for the world’s origins, but Edward Bernays, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump for what it means today.

Plus Creative Cursing from Around The World takes us to South Africa.

To investigate the word "Hoax", we need to talk about magicians and the Catholic liturgy.

This episode is about a fake word, in a way. A made up word. But what is true, is that people have been hoaxing the public for centuries. Whether is the story of a woman who gave birth to rabbits, the Fiji Mermaid, or Balloon Boy, why are people so gullible or is it just our psychology that makes us want to believe? Well I've consulted the media, history books and dictionaries to find out.

In this episode:

How did such a nice word that we use to mean sweet and polite, also come to be an insult for some? Well, today's word, nice, started out as a pretty mean word, actually.

Depending on your circle of influence, you might want someone to call you nice, because it’s a compliment. Like, you know those 16 year old girls who attend Purity Balls with their dads where they commit to remaining a virgin until marriage?

But if you’re a satanist, or even an artist, you might be outraged if someone uses it to refer to you or your work.

And really, Nice was a real downer in Old English. To be called nice wasn't nice.

Because Nice is one of the most poly-semus words I’ve come across – and that’s just a fancy way of saying a word that has multiple meanings.

So from drug smugglers, nun's hens, the first English dictionary with a ridiculously long title and Sex and the City, let's have a look at the rather complicated history of a tiny word.

PS. I'm launching a new segment today - Naught Words from Around the World.

Many years ago, I found a series of videos on YouTube of people making miniature food. Actual food like a burger, the size of a coin, sushi no bigger than a pebble. To make this food, faceless people use working miniature kitchens and utensils to prepare and cook the meals. It’s food for Barbie and Ken. And this food is edible.

Many years ago, I found a series of videos on youtube of people making miniature food. Actual food like a burger, the size of a coin, sushi no bigger than a pebble. To make this food, faceless people use working miniature kitchens and utensils to prepare and cook the meals. It’s food for Barbie and Ken. And this food is edible.

Chances are, even if you haven’t gone out of your way to watch or listen to ASMR, you have experienced it without even realising.

It’s the whispering by Amelie in the classic French movie, and when she plunges her hands into sacks of dry beans at the market. It’s Diane Weiss applying makeup to Edward Scissorhands, gentle brushing and stroking. It’s the silent rustle of linen and silk fabric and of charcoal pencil against canvas in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. And it’s Bob Ross in The Joy of Painting – everything - the brush strokes, his soothing voice, his concentration.

ASMR can be defined as a combination of positive feelings, relaxation and a distinct, static-like tingling sensation on the skin.

Let's see if you feel it!

When you think of hysteria, what comes to mind? Melancholia, anxiety, frigidity. It’s a problem that can be solved, says Doctor Dalrymple from the Netflix feel good movie, Hysteria.

Until 1952, female hysteria was a valid diagnosis for women exhibiting the following symptoms: insomnia, anxiety, shortness of breath, sexual desire, frigidity or lack of sexual desire, irritability, fainting, a general air of independence, raucous behaviour and even infertility. Holy cow! I must have hysteria!

In today's episode I'll talk about the first hysteric, the Queen of Hysterics Blanche Wittman, wandering uteruses, excorcisms, Freud (of course), the Salem Witch Trials, and mass hysteria including the War of the Worlds alien invasion, meowing nuns and the dancing epidemic.

And did I mention polenta poultices? Oh, and Trump...

And I'll ask if we should just retire the word.

Resolutions

Each and every year I buy a diary and I make a resolution to use it ALL YEAR. This is my year. I say that every year.

And each and every year, I will stop using it, I will even stop thinking about it, before February is though.

Because, let’s face it, resolutions are the worst way to start the year. They only lead to disappointment and “I knew its”.

Why do we even make new year’s resolutions at all, especially when we know we’ll break them? Who the hell started this most delusional of traditions?

According to Gallop, more than 80% of people who make New Year’s resolutions will abandon them by mid-February. And yet we still make them, and are still shocked and disappointed when, not only have we stopped working on them, we actually forget all about them.

It’s almost Christmas so there’s no better time of the year to have a look at the words we use once a year with abandon.

From Eggnog to Kris Kringle, Santa's Elves to Decking the Halls with Holly, where did these words, and their traditions come from?

Let’s swig on a flagon of eggnog and bring in the yuletide cheer with the inaugural Say What Christmas episode.

From Taxi Driver to Psycho, Ted Bundy to the kid down the road, the Peeping Tom is both a real life predatory character and box office gold.

But who was the first Peeping Tom? And who did Tom peep on?

In this episode we travel through time, movies, some very real and disturbing crimes and a very beautiful and pious naked woman.

Do you know where the word “left” comes from? Well, in Latin, it’s Sinister, in all of its evil definitions. 

So let’s break it down. How did sinister come to mean left and why is the left sinister? 

Why does my mum think that left handers are evil? What does ancient bird divination, and the toilet habits of some cultures have to do with it? And what about the French Revolution?

In today's episode, I break down the word LEFT and its very sinister history.

Just in case you’re wondering, I have a real weak spot for curiosities and curious people – you know, people who behave irrationally, rule breakers and general riff raff. I’m quite fond of these people. Well…

When I say “fond”, I don’t mean the – take me to your leader type of fondness but, rather,

I just want to understand what makes people behave the way they do.

And that’s why Stockholm Syndrome is this episode’s focus.

I use the term Stockholm Syndrome here and there, and while I know what it means, I didn’t actually know where it originated. For some reason I thought it had something to do with kajillionnaire heir Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army (more about that later).

And while the term originates from around the same era, it was actually an altogether different kidnapping event that led to the term being coined.

So what exactly is Stockholm Syndrome? We'll travel through the 1930s and the 1970s to find out.

We’ve heard the word, Catfishing, and doesn’t it feel like it’s been part of the zeitgeist forever? But Catfishing, as it’s used in popular culture, is a relatively new term, from 2010, actually.

And it was coined by a documentarian.

In this episode, I look at the history of the word catfishing, and actually take a look at its very long, but hidden history that has everything to do with catfish and cod. 

So let’s deconstruct this!

What is up with the word Tomboy? Is it even politically correct to say it anymore? Without turning this into a gender studies episode, we’re going to learn where the word comes from, how it came to mean what it did, if it even does mean the same thing today, and the various translations because, yes, tomboys are everywhere and every country has its own nuanced definition and you may be surprised to learn that well, it’s a little more complex than sex, gender constructs and whether you wear skirts and climb trees.

So let’s deconstruct this!

Today's episode features Freud's Masculinity Complex, Calamity Jane, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel's Suzie Myerson, and I completely butcher some foreign languages. Sorry.

Since the 2016 election that gave Donald Trump a platform, not to mention the presidency, the word has been everywhere. But what does it mean? Where does gaslight come from?

We hear a lot about ghosting. You know, it’s when someone ends a relationship suddenly without warning and just disappears, with no contact. Nothing.

But what about gaslighting.

According to Wiktionary, "The verb sense derives from the 1938 stage play called Gas Light, in which a husband attempts to convince his wife and others that she is insane by manipulating small elements of their environment."

Recently, I watched the original movie from 1940, which was based on the stage play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton.

The film, besides being super dramatic in the way movies were back then – you know, close ups of crazy eyes, that sort of thing, it was actually fascinating to see where the term that we use so freely today, actually came from.

Join me as I travel through the last century to find the origins of this fascinating word.

When you think of quarantine, what comes to mind? Leper colonies of the past? Two weeks to flatten the curve?

A hundred years ago, when leprosy was considered a public health risk, people were quarantined off for life. There was no cure for leprosy back then, and while only a few hundred people were ever recorded to have leprosy in the United States, it was claimed that a few thousand were likely to exist in hiding, to avoid a life of quarantine.

So how did quarantine get its name? And what was quarantine like before the current pandemic? I go back into ancient history to show you that, actually, nothing much has changed.

Oh, and goats. Goats definitely get a mention today!

It's the most hashtagged flavour of icecream, the second most expensive spices in the word, and it's much maligned. How did vanilla go from being a rare orchid that, to this day, is hand-pollinated, to meaning boring? And what does it have to do with bondage? We'll find out in this episode.