Grandpa Is Him
A general microcast about everything and nothing in everyday life. True short stories, family fun, some true crime, anything that I find interesting. In short, it is about everyday life, as lived by every day people, presented a fun and entertaining way.
Grandpa Is Him
Episode 8 - Paint the Town Red, Harry Hamlin cooks, and Gun Safety
There wee some audio problems with the original release so here is release 2.
Ever wondered why we say "paint the town red"? Step back in time to 1837 and join us as we unravel the thrilling escapade of the Marquis of Waterford, whose mischievous antics gave birth to this colorful expression. From wild night stories to hangover cures, we explore the quirky history of idioms like "hair of the dog," offering a humorous glimpse into how old remedies play into modern-day life. My grandson Blake’s unexpected encounter with an empty cannabis box prompts a personal reflection on the discoveries that shape my podcast's journey and broader life perspectives.
Switching gears to a more serious note, idioms like "read the riot act" and "mad as a hatter" lead us into a vital conversation about gun safety. As a trained firearm safety instructor, I share a real-life account of Blake's commendable actions in a tense situation involving a supposed firearm, underscoring the challenges of teaching and enforcing safety rules. Discover how a child's responsible behavior can spark unexpected responses from others, and join me in appreciating the lighter side of life—as I've found solace in cooking shows amidst the intensity of true crime narratives.
Welcome to Grandpa Is Him, a fun microcast about everything and nothing in ordinary life. I am your host, lynn Dimmick, and if I'm your host then you're my guest and I hope that you will enjoy this time that you spend with me. Thank you for joining me on Grandpa Is Him. As I said in my intro episode a few months ago, this podcast is supposed to be an insight into my everyday life, the things I think, the things I experience Nothing earth-shattering, and today is not going to be any different. This podcast, or this microcast as I refer to it, will have a lot of different things happening, a lot of changes, a lot of experimentation and a lot of learning, so I appreciate that you're going along for the ride with me. In this episode, I want to share with you some of the meta items that go on into a podcast. I also have some idioms that I'm going to share with you that I've recorded over the past few months, and I've got a review and a discussion about a TV show involving Harry Hamlin. I think you'll find that one interesting. I've got a story about a young boy finding what he thought were drugs that I want to share with you. And finally, I'm going to share with you a story about what happens when a young boy finds something wrong. He says something, and what some of those consequences are and how they're not always what we think they should be. I'm going to start things off by sharing with you the idiom of painting the town red and how it came to be. Just remember that for every one of these stories there's a hundred different versions, and this is the best version I could find.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we hear the phrase paint the town red. It's a fun phrase that people use when they're going out for a wild night, like partying or celebrating. It basically means to go out, have a blast and maybe get a little rowdy. But, funny enough, there's actually some debate about where this colorful expression actually came from. One popular story says that back in 1837 in England, when the Marquis of Waterford, who was well known for being a mischievous prankster, went out with his friends in a small town called Melton Mowbray. They were on a wild spree, getting into all sorts of trouble, and they literally painted the town red, like they covered buildings, doors and even a tollgate in red paint. The chaos made headlines and it seems like the phrase might have stuck around as a way of saying you're out for a memorable, over-the-top good time. It could also just come from the idea of bright red as an intense, attention-grabbing color, kind of like how we say seeing red when we're mad or red-letter day for a special occasion. Either way, when people say they're going to paint the town red, you know they're planning on cutting loose and making it a night to remember.
Speaker 1:One of the consequences of painting the town red may be the next morning when you wake up and you're just not feeling good. Some people are said to have the hair of the dog, or they need the hair of the dog, so let me share with you what I found out about that idiom. The phrase hair of the dog comes from an old folk remedy for rabies. People used to believe that if you were bitten by a rabid dog, you could treat it by putting some of that same dog's hair on the wound. The idea was that a little bit of what harmed you could also help you. Almost like the fight fire with fire concept when it comes to drinking, hair of the dog now means taking a small drink of alcohol to ease a hangover. The logic is similar you got sick from drinking too much, so a little bit more might help you feel better, while there's no real science behind it and it's really not a cure. It's become a common phrase people use jokingly about hangovers.
Speaker 1:Now let's take a break from the idioms and let me share with you a story about Blake finding some drugs. I think that this will remind all of us about some of the adventures we had when we were young. Last week on one afternoon I got a phone call from my grandson, blake, and, as you may know, blake is a real explorer up there where he lives, and he told me he says Grandpa, guess what? And I said what? And he says I think I found somebody's drug stash. My first thought was to tell him don't touch it. So I said don't touch it and show me what you got. So he brought it up on video and it was a box like a point of sale box that's had some kind of edible in it. And I said why do you think it's drugs? He says well, I think I saw this before. So he showed me the box and it said cannabis on it. Now my first thought was okay, can this get me into trouble? And the answer was no. My second thought was is Blake going to get into trouble. No. My third thought was can I use this on the podcast? And that was a yes. So I told him to open the box, filming it so that we'd have a record of it, and it was empty, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:One of the unintended consequences of starting a podcast is that you start to look at other podcasts, tv shows, movies a little bit different, to try and pick out the things they're doing and evaluating them to see if it makes sense to try and incorporate some of those ideas. One of my favorite genres is mysteries and true crime, and I can't always watch those or listen to those as much as I would like to and, to be honest, there's only so much true crime that I can stomach. So what I have found is an alternative to true crime and violence, and that would be cooking shows. If you think about it, it has all of the elements of a mystery. They don't always know what they're going to make, they don't know how they're going to get there, they're not sure what the answer is, and it's an entertaining route. So I enjoy a lot of the cooking competitions. I don't really enjoy the how to do things, but I do like to watch the shows and try and pick out little tidbits to try and make things make a little bit more sense. For instance, why do you want uniform cuts on your vegetables and your meat? Not because it looks nice, although that is a benefit. You need to make sure that they're the same size, the same mass, so they cook at the same time. You don't want raw vegetables, with overcooked vegetables. I'm not even sure you really want vegetables, but that's another story.
Speaker 1:In the course of watching shows, I came across one that I thought was kind of interesting. It was called In the Kitchen with Harry Hamlin. Now, for those of you who are well your age, I guess I first became aware of Harry Hamlin in LA Law, and so I thought he was a good actor, so I kind of looked for him once in a while. Now, harry Hamlin has never been known as a great cook in the television world that I've been exposed to, so I was curious to see what the show was about, and it was kind of interesting because he's not really teaching you how to cook. The premise is is that he makes pretty good food. He has a niece who is a trained chef, so she helps him. So I thought, well, let's just watch this and see why they think this is a special show.
Speaker 1:And the first couple of episodes really I didn't learn anything. I really did not learn anything and they weren't anything special. He wasn't following traditional recipes, he was making things up as he went. He didn't try and tell everybody that he knew everything, but what made the show interesting was the interactions that he had with his dinner guests. Because he's from Hollywood, he knows a lot of people there and he makes them dinner and he gives them to sit down and talk about their life and their career. To me that was a fascinating part, not because they're stars, but because it takes them out of their star world and makes them a little bit more personable. And I really appreciated that. And that's kind of the direction I've tried to go with this podcast is to take people out of their famous setting or what they're well-known for and try and make them a little bit more accessible I don't want to say common, but easily to approach, more understandable and more human. So that's kind of the premise behind this and I appreciate that Harry Hamlin did it. Now let's jump back and I'll go ahead and share a couple more idioms with you.
Speaker 1:Bob's, your uncle is a fun, brutish saying that basically means something super easy or guaranteed to work out. You'll usually hear it after someone gives instructions like saying do this, then that and boom, bob's your uncle, meaning everything will turn out just fine. The origin isn't totally clear, but a common theory links it to Robert Cecil, who was a British Prime Minister in the late 1800s. Apparently he gave his nephew, arthur Balfour, a bunch of important jobs, so the phrase kind of hints that if Bob is your uncle, you're going to succeed thanks to his connections. People started using it more in the 20th century and it's got this easygoing, informal vibe. So now when people say Bob's your uncle, they're basically saying follow these steps and you're golden. I've only heard Bob's your uncle used a couple of times, so it was kind of an interesting one. This next one you're all going to be familiar with, and I found it fascinating because of the story behind it. It did not even make sense to me until I heard this, and I think it's a great one.
Speaker 1:The phrase white elephant is all about something that costs a ton to keep but doesn't really give you much in return, or it could be a gift that's more trouble than it's worth. It actually comes from a legend in Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand, which used to be called Siam. Back then, white elephants were super rare and considered sacred. They were symbols of power and prestige, so they were often given to kings or other important people. But because they were sacred, you couldn't use them for regular work. You had to take care of them in this super luxurious way, which made them really expensive to maintain basically a huge financial drain instead of a helpful gift. According to the legend, siamese kings would sometimes give these white elephants to people they didn't like. The person couldn't refuse the gift because it was such a big honor, but then they'd be stuck with all the crazy costs of caring for the elephant, which would eventually ruin them financially. These days we use white elephant to talk about anything that's super expensive to keep up but not really worth it. And of course it's also tied to those white elephant gift exchanges where people give each other silly, impractical or totally useless gifts.
Speaker 1:I guess the title of this episode is going to have to reflect Blake's participation in it. Now I got a phone call again another one from Blake one afternoon and he says hey, grandpa, I'm down at the ravine, what is this? And he sent me a picture of a barrel and I said I don't know what does it say on it? And so he got a little bit closer. He scanned in and it's a danger, keep away, flammable. And I said, blake, don't mess with it, go home, tell your dad about it, tell your mom, tell them to call the police, because on it it said flammable, do not touch. And all those other scary things. Given that this happened right around Christmas, it concerned me because I was thinking that it might've been some kind of fuel or something they used for illegal fireworks, because there are a lot of fireworks that go off New Year's Eve. Well, it turns out that Blake did exactly as I told him. He went home and told his dad, told his mom, his mother called the fire department. Well, she called 911, emergency services. Emergency services showed up with a police car, three fire trucks and two ambulances because they didn't know what they were walking into. So Dustin went over and talked to the police and said hey, it's my kid that called this in, and the officer was very grateful. He said it didn't turn out to be much. I think it was cleaning fluid or antifreeze or something, but he said it was something that was dangerous enough to where they needed to deal with it. So they did have a large hazmat response and I am really proud of Blake for doing what was right and not just blowing it off. And now let's go over a couple more idioms and then I've got a serious story that I want to share with you, and I'd like to get some feedback on this story and get your thoughts.
Speaker 1:When someone says, read the riot act, they're talking about giving a serious warning or a strong reprimand. Usually when someone's behavior isn't cutting it, it basically means they're telling someone to knock it off or face the consequences. This saying actually comes from back in the early 1700s in England. There was a law called the Riot Act of 1714, which allowed authorities to declare a group of 12 or more people as an unlawful assembly. If a crowd was causing trouble, officials had to read a part of the Riot Act out loud to get everyone to break it up. That reading was like a formal warning that if people didn't listen they could get into serious trouble such as getting arrested. Now the phrase is used more broadly. It doesn't have to involve an actual riot, it just means someone is getting a serious talking to about their behavior. For example, you might hear, after all the trouble he caused, the manager finally read him the riot act. Now, this next idiom I always associated with Alice in Wonderland and it is associated with it, but in a different way. It's the one that gave rise to a piece of Alice in Wonderland and not the other way around. Enjoy this one.
Speaker 1:The phrase mad as a hatter means someone is acting totally crazy or super eccentric. It's often used to describe people behaving in a completely irrational or wild way. The saying comes from back in the 18th and 19th centuries, when hat makers or hatters used mercury to cure felt for hats. After being around that stuff too long, it messed with their nervous system and made them act well, a little mad. So hatters at the time started getting a reputation for being unstable, which is how the phrase caught on. It really became popular thanks to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with the Mad Hatter character, who's all kinds of weird and eccentric. Nowadays people use the phrase in a more lighthearted way, like if someone stayed up all night and acted a little loopy the next day, you might say he was as bad as a hatter at work.
Speaker 1:This next story I'm going to share with you also involves Blake, but this one is not on the lighter side and is something that I take very seriously. As we prepare to move into another adventure of Blake's, I want to set the scene and give you some background information. Growing up, I've always enjoyed target shooting, making holes in paper, and there's just something very therapeutic and fun and it's just something that guys like to do. My kids grew up enjoying shooting, and so I knew that my grandchildren would be exposed to the same experiences.
Speaker 2:One of my biggest concerns throughout my entire life was a lot of big guns, so I knew that my grandchildren would be exposed to the same experiences and actions, so I decided that I needed to make sure that everyone was safe.
Speaker 1:As I grew up, I observed that people adults who have been around firearms their entire life should be very trained.
Speaker 2:And so I wanted to make sure that there was a poignant structure for the safety that we were using.
Speaker 1:So several years ago I became a trained, certified firearm safety instructor as well as a range safety officer. My purpose here was twofold Number one, to educate people, to make sure they're safe and they follow the rules, and number two, to make sure that whenever we shot, there was someone there who knew what the rules were and couldn't force them. To make sure that everybody had a safe, enjoyable experience, because this is such a critical life skill. I have taught my grandchildren the four rules for basic safety. Number one stop If you see a gun, stop. Number two rule do not touch it. Number three rule run away. Number four tell an adult. I do not want them trying to disarm a firearm, move it or anything else, because there's no telling what kind of accident could happen. They need to get somebody involved that knows what they're doing. Now, recently, blake had an experience where this came into question use and uh review. So bl, where did this all start?
Speaker 2:It started when my friend came over to my house and said I have a gun.
Speaker 1:Okay, he said he has a gun. So then, where did you go? What did you do?
Speaker 2:We went to the ravine by my house to like explore and play.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then what happened? And then he told me, did it look like a gun?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it looked just like a gun. There was no like red cap on the end or anything.
Speaker 1:Okay, and he said it was loaded.
Speaker 2:He said it was loaded yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. So you got done at the ravine, you went home and what did you do?
Speaker 2:I told my parents.
Speaker 1:You told your parents, so you stopped, you didn't touch it, you left where the gun was, and then you went and told your parents, so you followed the basic gun rules that you've been trained with. Now, what did your parents do when they found out about this or heard about this?
Speaker 2:They called the school and told my principal.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's exactly what should happen, because a child who's in the fourth, fifth or sixth grade should never have a firearm at a school. Now, the thing that was so disturbing here, in fact, before I even get to that. So, blake, what did the principal do?
Speaker 2:The principal called me into his office and just asked me like you thought it was a gun and that I did the right thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the principal told you you did the right thing. See something, say something. Okay, so the principal told you you did the right thing. See something, say something. The principal then called in that child and the child's parents. They reviewed what was going on and, blake, what did this gun really turn out to be?
Speaker 2:A pocket knife.
Speaker 1:A pocket knife, but he said it was a gun. So the thing that I found most disturbing was the parents' response to Blake doing what was right, and that was they told the child that he was no longer allowed to associate with or be around Blake because Blake had told somebody about this knife that looked like a gun that the child had reported as a gun. I'm very baffled by the response of the parents and I'm trying to understand why they would do that and how that could be justified. What I would like to do is ask for your feedback, share with me your thoughts and tell me how should this have been handled? Was it handled appropriately? Why the parents would do that, titled appropriately? Why the parents would do that. My email address is grandpaishimcom at gmailcom Kind of a wonky address, but it's grandpaishimcom at gmailcom. Send me your responses and your thoughts and I'll share some of those on the air if you'd like, and I would kind of like to just understand how this happened. Blake, thank you so much and we'll move on to your next adventure.
Speaker 2:Yay, I will have more adventures.
Speaker 1:Yes, Before I close out this abbreviated edition of this podcast, I want to share with you just a couple more idioms that I thought were kind of fun, and we'll be back together with you in two weeks. We'll be picking up some more issues concerning privacy. The phrase stealing someone's thunder has some pretty cool origins story. It goes all the way back to the early 1700s. It started with a playwright named John Dennis. He invented a new way to make thunder sounds for his play Appius in Virginia. As usually happens, his play was a failure. Not long after, dennis went to see a production of Macbeth and was shocked to hear that they were using his thunder sound effect. He got super mad and supposedly yelled Damn them, they won't let my play run, but they'll steal my thunder. And from that moment on, the phrase steal someone's thunder became a way of describing when someone takes credit for your ideas or achievements or uses something. You planned to get all the attention. And now it's time for our last idiom, thanks.
Speaker 1:Here's one that has a fun backstory. The phrase red herring refers to a distraction, something that leads you off the main track to divert you. Imagine you're trying to solve a mystery and then you get thrown off by a completely irrelevant clue. That's a red herring. You see, these types of things pop up in almost every mystery these days. Now the term actually comes from a trick they used to use back in the day when people would train hunting dogs. Smoked herrings which are really fish that turned a reddish brownbrown color when they were cured were used in training because they had a super strong scent. The trainers would drag these fish across the trail of an animal the dogs were tracking to try to confuse them. The purpose of this was to teach them to stay focused on the original scent instead of getting distracted by the fishing smell. So a red herring became a way to describe something that's intentionally misleading or distracting.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Grandpa Is Him. We hope you enjoyed our discussion and stories and maybe even found some inspiration for your own family adventures. Now we want to hear from you. What questions do you have or what topics would you like us to explore in future episodes? What stories can you share? Share your ideas? Simply visit our website at grandpaishimcom and fill out the submission form. You can also reach out to us on email at grandpaishimcom, at gmailcom. We're always looking for your thoughts and experiences. So don't be shy, join the conversation and help us create the content that matters to you and your family. Until next time, keep laughing, keep sharing and keep those ideas coming.
Speaker 2:I wish I had never said grandpa's hand, you, you.
