Good Morning Digital Neighbors! I hope all of you had an enjoyable weekend! How about another visit with Endangered phrases: Intriguing Idioms Dangerously close to extinction by Steven D. Price This post is brought to by the Letter B, the number 7 and a grant from your friends at Pfizer. 🤢Seriously, whenever I ever listen to commercial TV or radio, Pfizer is shelling out the money to promote their products (one in particular) at every commercial break. Off to the Letter B of endangered phrases! Buckle-up Buttercup! (A phrase that does not appear in this book.)

B movie: the low-budget second part of a movie theater’s double feature.

Back in the days of double features, movie houses showed two very distinct types of films. A movies were the hits–“Gone With the Wind,” “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Wizard of Oz”—the ones that drew patrons to the movie houses. Then there were Westerns, horror flicks, and science fiction movies that didn’t cost very much to make (they were often in black-and-white). These B movies tended to be shown before the main feature; otherwise, people would leave after the A picture and then feel they hadn’t gotten their admission money’s worth.

As double features disappeared and the cost of filmmaking grew, the curtain went down on the B movie genre.

In the little home town of my childhood, Elsberry, MO. we could watch the 3 main networks ABC, CBS and NBC as well as PBS and two locally owned stations channel 11 & 30 that did not belong to any networks. It was those last two stations that would play the B movies that used to appear in theaters with them main feature. Almost all of them were older black and white movies that had giant monsters, aliens or some element of horror or what we might now call paranormal or cryptid bits.

The Creature form the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, The Blob and many others were among those cheesie movies that I so enjoyed in my childhood. I was such a monster nerd in grade school. I wasn't aware of the existence of B Western movies until my later year in junior High or High School. Some of the movies received yearly play and you looked forward to seeing their return to TV. I hope you had your favorite B movies in whatever movie genre told these non-blockbuster movies.

Ball and chain: marriage. A jocularly rueful term for marriage or one’s wife.

There was a time when men were supposed to regard marriage in general and their own married state in particular with a certain amount of resignation. The nights of going out drinking with the guys were over, to be replaced by the days of cleaning the attic, painting the garage, and fixing the toilet drip. Marriage was prison (albeit with privileges), wives were wardens, and husbands wore a metaphorical ball and chain, the sort that prisoners wore to prevent escaping.

A young man asked whether he and his girlfriend had wedding plans might reply, “Naw, I’m too young to wear a ball and chain.” That reply would rarely be uttered with impunity in the presence of women.

I thought it was trying to love two women was like a ball & chain? What did the Oakridge Boys know? Great song and a fun saying if it was somewhat of a put down to the ladies. The play days of youth and immaturity are ending and the days of growing responsibility are arriving at your doorstep, especially for men. I guess that applies to women too but it tends to be men that need to nudge into maturity and responsibility.

A side thought from an anthropologist that I had read about 30 or so years ago. It might be a simple assessment, but I appreciate simple when all things are equal. Complicated and obtuse does not mean something is insightful, wise or deep. Keep it simple stupid! Works for me. 😆 The simple insight - the onset of puberty naturally pushes women into a great sense of responsibility since ignoring periods comes with greater consequences for girls individually and socially. For men it is almost the opposite, what young boy ignores an erection? Girls enter the mess, boys rediscover an old friend. Obviously there are exceptions to these two generalized assumptions about the genders (the only two with some chromosomal anomalies added in the mix) that one could argue against.

For all its fun, I have had many more enjoyable days as an adult than as a child. It might have been easier when others had to contend with the consequences of living, but it is more fulfilling and meaningful when you do. Have a great day Digital Neighbors!

Trossachs in Scotland -Dougie Coull Photography