Simple Tricks and Nonsense

Happy birthday, Anne!

If it's not too personal, could one of you explain the etymology of "duckie" and "raggedy girl"?

Robert, I've called Anne "baby duck" and/or "duckie" for years. I don't remember where that came from; it's just one of those cutesy things lovers do that please each other but make everyone around them ill, you know?

As for the "raggedy girl" thing, that's actually a paraphrase of a line from the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. At the end of the flick, Tina Turner, her little post-apocalyptic kingdom in ruins, looks down at the battered hero (who has essentially sacrificed himself as a distraction while a bunch of other characters flee Turner's goons), and for a moment she seems ready to kill him. Then she just smiles and says, "Well, ain't we a pair, raggedy man?"

I said this to Anne one time when we were both feeling under the weather and looking awful, and it's since become kind of a running gag for us.

I imagine the actual explanations of these things are much less lurid and/or interesting than whatever you were imagining. :)

I think we make a fantastic pair, raggedy man. :)

Thanks, Robert!