I was perusing GQ and ran across a thread that mentioned the term “Pussy Wagon.” This immediately brought back memories of my childhood growing up in Southern California and a certain persistent television ad campaign. If you grew up out here, say it with me:
“It’s Cal Worthington, and his dog, Spot!”
If you need a car or truck, pussy cow…
Now, Cal Worthington, master car salesman, was always seen in his commercials riding around on various animals, so I always assumed as a kid that there was some strange crossbreed I wasn’t aware of called a “pussy cow.” It wasn’t until my teen years, I think, that I started to think about how bad that sounded, and eventually realized from paying more attention that what was actually being said was “Go see Cal!” But ol’ Cal is still around, last I knew of, anyway, and I still giggle every time I hear that song.
Anyway, that’s my story – what’s yours? This isn’t intended to be limited to song lyrics…just have at it.
You can listen to some Cal Worthington commercials here.
What Cal is to Southern California, Bob Rohrman is to Lafayette – hokey commercials which saturate the local airwaves. When I was out on the town with Long Time First Time one day, I heard her say what sounded to me like “I didn’t realize this street was warm and dry.” As it was a cold and rainy day, I didn’t understand until I saw the sign that announced that the “street” in question was called Rohrman Drive, and was basically a service driveway for one of Bob’s dealerships.
The Marsh chain of supermarkets operates convenience stores under the Village Pantry name. A promotional announcement for some offer at Marsh and Village Pantry outlets sounds like an ad for Martian Village Pantry.
Four, one of which I think I’ve mentioned before.
- Sitting around with a couple of friends. The subject of movies comes up, and I mention that I’m planning to see Fahrenheit 9/11. One of my friends gives me an odd look and says, “You’re going to see ferrets tonight at eleven?”
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A Long John Silver’s restaurant. A little girl, who from her raspy voice clearly has a cold, and her mother, are sitting at a nearby table. The mother says, “Aw, sweety, have you got a frog in your throat?” Little girl looks horrorstruck and sez “No, it’s a little fish!”
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A misunderstanding that was read rather than heard; my girlfriend of the time was reading a book on World War I. She came to me asking, “I was reading about how the French used 75mm cannon, and I don’t get it.”
“Get what?”, sez I.
“Well, how could anything so tiny do any damage?”
- Just to be fair, I’ll tell one on myself. I was in, uh, third grade I think, and was asked to stand up and read a passage from a book about a Mexican kid named Pepe. I’d never heard this name before. I read the sentence and when I got to the name, pronounced it “Pee-Pee” . The class erupted in bedlam, and the teacher, thinking I had done it deliberately, made me stay after school for a several days.