Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner

Subject: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Matthew B.
Date: 12 Apr 99 - 06:44 PM

Okay, since we're in the business of asking about obscure terms, there are a few that have eluded me all these years:

In the The Fitting Out (the only "luggage packing shanty" I know), there is reference to something called a podeldo. Perhaps if I show it in context, it might ring a bell --
A podeldo and pain-killer surely you'll need
And something to stop the red stream, should you bleed.

Eeew. Yeah, I know. but does anybody know what it is?

Second, the same song refers to "essners" (mentioned along with pipes and cigars). Are they pipe cleaners? Anybody know?

Third, there's a lumberjack song that has the line "when the hooker gives the highball and you start to dig for gold." Now, despite what you think, the "hooker" here is the guy who grapples logs with a hooked spar. But I have no idea about "highball" or "digging for gold" in this context. Any clues?

Finally, anybody know what "the jims" are? There's a line "I blowed another winter's beef and I got the jims instead." I can only surmise that it's a form if "the shakes" but that's only a guess.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Penny
Date: 12 Apr 99 - 06:52 PM

Sorry for kipling, but there's a poem called "La nuit blanche" in which the narrator says that others said "I had the "jims" on", and is clearly a description of delirium from inside. I was going to say that I didn't know where it came from, even so, but I'm now wondering if it has something to do with jimsonweed, from Jamestown in VA, aka datura.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Penny
Date: 12 Apr 99 - 07:00 PM

Except that it's one of the Indian period poems.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Banjer
Date: 12 Apr 99 - 07:16 PM

I do know the term HIGHBALL comes to us from the railroad terminology, meaning to proceed at speed. To Give the Highball means to give an OK, or a signal to go ahead. In your context the Hooker gives a go ahead and the lumberjacks engage in some activity, presumably shoveling or digging into something?

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: rich r
Date: 12 Apr 99 - 08:04 PM

What's the name of the lumberjack song?

rich r

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Matthew Bram
Date: 13 Apr 99 - 07:54 AM

rich -

That lumberjack song is the great "Timberbeast's Lament"

- Matt

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Matthew B.
Date: 13 Apr 99 - 07:59 PM

Gee whiz, folks, doesn't anybody know what a podeldo is?????????

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: rich r
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 12:10 AM

Let me raise the possibility that it is a corruption of the following from the 1913 Webster's dictionary. It at least fits with the rest of the line. It is also easy to see how "opodeldoc" could be transcribed as "A podeldo" by someone unfamiliar with the word.

Opodeldoc (Page: 1006)

Op`o*del"doc (?), n. [So called by Paracelsus. The first syllable may be fr. Gr. vegetable juice.]

1. A kind of plaster, said to have been invented by Mindererus, -- used for external injuries. [Obs.]

2. A saponaceous, camphorated liniment; a solution of soap in alcohol, with the addition of camphor and essential oils; soap liniment.

rich r

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 07:54 AM

I'll stick to the easy ones, Rich! Penny: "jims" I think is "jim-jams". Nothing to do with nightwear, it's the same as the wim-wams, and related to the heebie-jeebies and the screaming ab-dabs; all of which seem to have been DTs in their first incarnations. No connection with the Dreaded Lurgi, the nadgers, soft shoulders, pink toenails or acte emulsion of the legs.

Steve

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 07:55 AM

... nor acute emulsion of the legs!

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Matthew B.
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 09:14 AM

rich -

You are the king! May I please quote you in my book?

- Matt

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Penny
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 12:00 PM

I didn't invent the jimsonweed idea, it swam up from some deep area of memory, remarkably quickly for such an odd bit of knowledge, (ie, name for thorn-apple) but nothing has appeared to join it, or to elucidate where I might have got it from in the first place.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Penny
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 12:06 PM

This is what you get from jimsonweed! There is a connection with the heebie-jeebies!

•Thirst
•Double vision
•Urge to urinate but unable to do so
•Hallucinations
•Confusion
•Palpitations
•Restlessness
•Coma

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 12:21 PM

Can we all give Rich R. the gold star for the week? That was a brilliant bit of sleuthing!

Sandy

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: Bert
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 01:49 PM

Penny, Those sound like the symptoms of Mudcat Addiction!

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: AlistairUK
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 02:16 PM

Steve: aren't mmadgers something that you and I have got but penny hasn't? And yes Sandy I second you on that so here is his award:

RICH R IS THE GREATEST

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms III - Podeldo & Essner
From: rich r
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 11:52 PM

Thanks all, I'm nonplussed. Is that the same as minused?

rich r