Bunny likes "peas and carrots"

[capri0mni]

About yesterday's icon poll...

It all started with an icon I've been wanting to do for a while; I post a lot of general blather posts, but I didn't have a general blather/"talking nonsense" icon to illustrate them. So, I thought I'd do a visual pun / rebusy / jokey icon based on a catchphrase I've used with my father since about 1991, and used it so much that it's just sort of become a brain tic. I finally made the first version of the icon a couple of weeks ago. Here's the explaination I gave in my glarmaco comment about it:

This was an inside joke between my father and me. He told me once (but I don't know where he learned this) that when you see people on television talking in the background, with the sound off (as with news anchors chatting with each other while the credits roll), the people are probably just saying: "Peas and carrots. Peas and carrots... ," because it's a phrase that has generic-looking lip movements that could be just about anything. (sort of like how "Rhubarb" is used for its general sound in British Theater).

So, for Dad and me: "Peas and Carrots" became the stock term for talking nonsense (What did the senator say at the press conference? Oh, you know: the usual peas and carrots, yadda yadda.). And I thought I'd use this icon for my general blather LJ posts. But I'm not sure the composition is right. I like the idea, though. Maybe I like it enough to redo it [ETA: as you now know, I redid it]

But after I made it, I feared that the catchphrase I've been taking for granted is only known to my Dad and me, and he's not reading my LJ anymore, like he used to... so... the joke wouldn't really be a joke if I'm the only one who got it, so I never did do a G.I.P for it.

Yesterday, I realized that I'd never actually asked Dad where he learned about "peas and carrots," but just took it for granted that he knew what he was talking about. Then, I realized that if the information was actually out there in the world to be had, and not just something he'd made up in his own head, that it would be somewhere, posted by someone, on the 'Nets. My first choice for keyword strings, based on what I remember him telling me, was: "Peas and Carrots" + catchphrase + "television chatter," but that just got me a bunch of links to daytime television talkshows, where celebrity guests gave their favorite recipes for mixed summer vegetables. Hence the third question on that poll...

Most replies to the third question gave answers along the same lines I started with, but two were actually very helpful (and those links are the real reason for this post, because they are geeky and fun):

indefatigable42's suggestion ("peas and carrots" + "walla walla") led me here: Sound Effects - the use of Walla Walla

And here: “AaaAAAAahhhh!”: The Scream Heard Around The World -- a blog entry from October, 2007 (Google picked up on this because someone typed "Walla walla. Peas and carrots. Peas and carrots" in his reply he may have meant it in the same way I do, or he may have just been a nutter).

pedanther's suggestion (peas carrots slang phrase history -recipe) led me here: Take Our Word For It: issue 73 (scroll down to the question about the word "brouhaha"). This site seems to have died from old age and exaustion (sads), but the archive is large, and full of word-nerdy goodness (glads).

And here: What Else the Romans Did for Us (one of the things they did was import peas and carrots to Britain).

Conclusion: Dad really did know what he was talking about, after all. But jekesta's friend's grandfather does, in fact, seem to have lied. I couldn't find any reference to "peas and carrots" meaning "parrots" in Cockney Rhyming Slang...

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

I wonder if jekesta's friend's grandfather was confused by the music hall song:

Boiled beef and carrots,
Boiled beef and carrots,
That's the stuff for your "Derby Kell",
Makes you fit and keeps you well.
Don't live like vegetarians
On the stuff they give to parrots,
From Morn til' night, blow out your kite
On boiled beef and carrots.

(Translation: Derby Kelly = belly)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

That sounds to me like a very sound theory...

...um, is "blow out your kite" from the "wind" that boiled beef and carrots will give you?