Saturday, November 29, 2008

Yes, No or Maybe

Swiftie challenges me on "yessiree bop." Isn't it (he asks) "yessiree Bob?"

Further inquiry suggests he is right. "Yessiree bop" (with quotes) gets only eight Google hits--two of them to Underbelly's original post. "Yessiree Bob" gts 6,040. (local mileage may vary). I must have been thinking of "Bebop," but even there I should have remembered "Hey bob a re bob" (117 hits)--"Hey bob a re bop" gets only 58.

Other variations invite brief notice. "No siree," it appears, rarely sports a dangling appendage. On the other hand,"Bob" sometimes morphs into "Bobtail," "Bobcat," "Bobtail and a monkey," etc.

'Maybe," vby contrast, remains entirely unadorned--did anybody ever say "maybesiree!" Or I guess you could count what we used to say back in New England:'
Mebbe.
And mebbe not.

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