THROW A HOOLIHAN

Bruce asked:

The song Old Paint says:

I ride an old Paint, I lead an old Dan

I'm goin' to Montana to throw a houlihan

I've often wondered what a houlihan is and can't find it anywhere. Any ideas?

A little Internet searchin' turns this up at www.mudcat.org:

Hoolihan: backhand thrown loop for roping horses; or, an exciting or extraordinary event. E.g.,

1973 E. Carter Outlaw Wales 182: Seen him take on five pistoleros. He got three of 'em before they cut him down..It was a real hoolihan.

Or, hoolihand (among cowboys) to celebrate riotously, or to paint the town red.

And, to bulldog (a steer) by bringing it to the ground without twisting its neck. E.g.,

1925 W. James Drifting Cowboy 105: I hoolyhanned him on the jump and busted him right there. 1933 J.V. Allen Cowboy Lore12: Hoolihaning is the act of leaping forward and alighting on the horns of a steer in bull-dogging in a manner to knock the steer down without twisting the animal down with a wrestling hold. Hoolihaning is banned at practically all recognized contests.

Good question, Bruce. Now, what's an "old Dan"? Online lyrics read "old dam", which would be an old mare (clearly related to "dame").

MIGHT COULD

Dan E. wrote, pertinent to the irregular verb can/to be able:

One of my favorite southern colloquialisms is the expression “might could.” Here is an example: I might could attend the meeting. Al though I doubt that it is a correct usage, I have heard some highly educated people employ it in casual conversation. Of course the alternative is the wordier: I might be able to attend the meeting. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard it used...

p.s. My grammar checker advised me to substitute “be able to” for could in this email.

I have heard "might could" used, and although it's not considered correct, I too find it charming for some reason. I have no idea why a grammar checker would object to "could", unless the machine was reading "might could".

EVERYTHING'S O-K-K-K-K

Regarding "Amerika", Dave DaBee wrote:

Without knowing anything specific, I figured during my hippy years that the "k" came from Ku Klux Klan. But I have no idea where that came from.

The first place I recall seeing it was some Jefferson Airplane-y album cover, or maybe a writing in a radical newspaper. Or one of the later (more degenerate) Zap Comix.

Once again I resort to the Wikipedia, which says: The name was constructed by combining the Greek "kyklos" (circle) with "clan."

Later, the Klan naturally became associated with Nazism.

Best use of the letter K, however, must be the old World War I era song, "K-K-K-Katy" by Geoffrey O'Hara, which, you'll be happy to know, has been translated into many languages, including Estonian.

INTERESTING BUT NOT IRONIC

Back in PO 82, Dave DaBee generated some discussion on irony, and yet people are still misusing the word. Here's a recent radio announcement of the recent death of actor Tony Franciosa:

It's kind of sadly ironic that actor Tony Franciosa should pass away today because his former wife Shelley Winters passed away last week.

That's not ironic. It might be a coincidence, but if they retained a bond after they divorced, it could be an example of a fairly common phenomenon, when someone dies shortly after the death of the spouse. Irony requires a disconnect between what is expected and what actually happens (from the Latin or possibly Greek word ironia meaning dissimulation).

VOICING MY COMPLAINT

Headline for a contest from the local online city page:

"What is your fondest or worst Valentine's memory. Voice your response to win!"

But they don't want you to "voice" your response, you e-mail it. Here, "voice" doesn't work as a metaphor, as there's no reason not to say "write" or "send" your response; and I wouldn't exactly read an authorial voice in the e-mailed anecdotes.

Perhaps the headline writer fell victim to the idea that common words should be replaced with synonyms to avoid repetition, or add interest. This is what leads amateur writers to substitute all sorts of verbs for "said" when writing dialogue: "Rewrite that headline," the editor barked, "and while you're at it, rewrite this sentence!"

SHOULD THIS INFINITIVE BE SPLIT?

TV report: "West Virginia governor and congressional delegation today urged the White House aggressively to enforce mining safety laws."

"Aggressively" could logically split the infinitive "to enforce" or it could end the sentence. As it is, the word sounds as if it's modifying "urged" ~ which perhaps was the intention: the West Virginia people were speaking aggressively ~ but it's not clear. Maybe the journalist meant that they asked for aggressive enforcement. If the latter was intended, "aggressively" should have followed "to" (enforcement should be aggressive) or "laws" (ditto). If the former was meant, for clarity "aggressively" should have preceded "urged".

PROGRAMME

Mike S. wrote on "done" and "program" ("While I was trying to track down these books on the web, I discovered that programs exist for prisoners to record children's books").

At times like this I'm thankful that, in British English at least, 'program' and 'programme' have different meanings. Early in my computing career there was some debate about how to spell (computer) program. Some (pedants!) insisted on the British (actually French!) spelling, and we

others considered the distinction useful. It took a long time before the consensus was reached, informally of course.

Curiously, my dictionary has: programme n. Also (earlier, now /US & Computing/) program.

I also use several programs that have dialog boxes containing a button labelled 'Done' ~ not that that proves anything, merely demonstrated that somebody thinks the usage is good enough in a more or less formal context.

Done ~ Enter ~ Submit ~ Click here ~ Send... I worked with a woman who objected to Submit because she said the word just naturally made her feel like balking. I quite agree.

Back in December, Mike also wrote:

Two curious usage differences between US English and UK English: Although we would never say 'hitted', we always say 'fitted'; and although we would never say 'feeded up', we would say 'sped up'. Not very consistent, are we?

Those are the same in the US. However, we could use either "fitted" or "fit" but the distinction is a subtle one, and more an aesthetic than a grammatical matter.

Note: Readers frequently send me interesting and useful comments, sometimes following up on something I wrote, and I try to continue the conversation as soon as I can. But time and events intervene and sometimes I lose the thread. This doesn't mean I ignore or discount anything even if I neglect to use it. I have the kind of mind that wants to follow all those little paths as far as I can. As Fred said, my mind is full of scraps of paper, like my purse and my desk. But sometimes the Post-it loses its gumminess.

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