Subject: tools

From: "lindafowens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 07:38:18 -0400

Hi, I was just at my grandson's house reading an old compendium of Calvin and Hobbes when I came across Spaceman Spiff's Mertilizer.  The only time I had heard the word "mertilize" was once when my mother threatened to mertilize us kids.  She's been dead a long time, but when alive she was normally such a pleasant person that I figured she wanted to murder us kids for something horrible we'd done, but really didn't want to murder us, so she made up the euphemism--or it just slipped out.  Anyone ever heard of it before?  The same cartoon strip had the word GRONK! as a sound--we used to call a rather schmoo-like teacher colleague by that nickname.  In a further C&H strip there was a Frap-Ray, and in another SPELUNK! was a frog pond sound  (I used to explore caves, so I laughed). Linda

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From: "Conrad Heiney" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 13:20:05 -0700

I think your mothe was actually threatening to "murdalize" you, which I
remember as a playground adulteration of "murder". It was common in my
late 1970s elementary/junior high school world, and I saw it used on TV
comedies later. 

Wasn't there a character in the Broom-Hilda strip called Gronk? Or am I
totally out of it?

On Sun, May 25, 2003 at 07:38:18AM -0400, lindafowens wrote:
> Hi, I was just at my grandson's house reading an old compendium of Calvin and
> Hobbes when I came across Spaceman Spiff's Mertilizer.  The only time I had
> heard the word "mertilize" was once when my mother threatened to mertilize us
> kids.  She's been dead a long time, but when alive she was normally such a
> pleasant person that I figured she wanted to murder us kids for something
> horrible we'd done, but really didn't want to murder us, so she made up the
> euphemism--or it just slipped out.  Anyone ever heard of it before?  The same
> cartoon strip had the word GRONK! as a sound--we used to call a rather
> schmoo-like teacher colleague by that nickname.  In a further C&H strip there
> was a Frap-Ray, and in another SPELUNK! was a frog pond sound  (I used to
> explore caves, so I laughed). Linda

-- 
Conrad Heiney
[email-masked]
http://fringehead.org
----------

GO AND TELL ENGLAND THAT SCOTLAND IS RESISTANT TO STAINS!

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From: Nora Munoz <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 07:31:33 -0700 (PDT)

I know it was used in Bugs Bunny (Why, I oughta!  I'll
mertilize him, I'll squash him like a bug!), which I
assume was getting it from old gansta flicks with
James Cagney and such.  Perhaps they were just
changing the words around so that we children wouldn't
get the idea that they were actually going to murder
someone.
Nora

--- lindafowens <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Hi, I was just at my grandson's house reading an old
> compendium of Calvin and Hobbes when I came across
> Spaceman Spiff's Mertilizer.  The only time I had
> heard the word "mertilize" was once when my mother
> threatened to mertilize us kids.  She's been dead a
> long time, but when alive she was normally such a
> pleasant person that I figured she wanted to murder
> us kids for something horrible we'd done, but really
> didn't want to murder us, so she made up the
> euphemism--or it just slipped out.  Anyone ever
> heard of it before?  The same cartoon strip had the
> word GRONK! as a sound--we used to call a rather
> schmoo-like teacher colleague by that nickname.  In
> a further C&H strip there was a Frap-Ray, and in
> another SPELUNK! was a frog pond sound  (I used to

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From: "lindafowens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 20:02:28 -0400

Thanks, Nora, I keep getting more and more feedback on "mertilize" or
"murdalize".  What are often lacking in today's lazy speech are euphemisms
and innuendoes.  I grew up in a more sedate--or at least formal--perhaps
Victorian  (our teachers' mothers were real Victorian ladies)--era when many
people only hinted at things, or tried to cover up indelicacies.  My son
Greg is fascinated by this absurd behavior and is showing Guys and Dolls to
his classes at the boys' training school by way of illustration.  I used to
teach art at the prison  (for a year) and the F-word was used constantly,
except in my classes, at my request. I figured they needed a place in which
to practice good behavior, should they ever come up in front of a parole
board, and one guy actually thanked me.  Linda