# I thought it was common-knowledge..... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 5, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402 "2009-05-05T11:48:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/61 "2009-05-06T13:00:48Z")
I think I came across the term “karzi” for the first time in Spike Milligan’s _Adolf Hitler:My Part in His Downfall_, where he describes his unit moving to the Middle East during the war. If I remember, there is an incident involving a sergeant, a karzi, kerosene used as a disinfectant, and a cigarette, with predictable results. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/62 "2009-05-06T13:01:32Z")
In the movie and TV support industry, an equivalent of “hit the head” is “wring it out,” and a hand signal (for use during filming takes when you have to stay silent) to tell your set co-workers that you’re about to go, well, go, is to put your two fists together thumb-to-thumb in front of you, and rotate one fist left, one right. Since I’m female, when I worked on a TV set, it gave my co-workers the (suppressed) giggles the first few times I used the signal. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/63 "2009-05-06T13:43:47Z")
\*\*Kam \*\*old girl your OP needs more grinning smilies. I’m beginning to tire of your continual sour expression. Lighten up, fer ogsakes. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/64 "2009-05-06T14:17:03Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Reminds me of a story that Branford Marsalis told about playing with Sting. He was a huge admirer of Sting’s music, and paid him what, in New Orleans among Marsalis’ peers, was a huge compliment- “Your music’s a motherfucker, man!” What’s funny about that is that one of the first times I heard the term “monster”, it was applied to some guy I saw in the school cafeteria, and said by my roommate who knew the guy. His name was Branford somethingorother, and apparently he played the sax. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/65 "2009-05-06T14:51:07Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Hmm. Given that, although not about masturbation, the phrase ‘hit the head’ does till refer to taking your penis in hand, I think the nautical term explanation might be just one of things they tell kids. No, “head” is the nautical term for bathroom. The same way “galley” means kitchen. It doesn’t really refer to a penis in any way. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/66 "2009-05-06T16:29:47Z")
After the Kentucky Derby last week I made the remark to a coworker that since the winner was a gelding the horse’s owners wouldn’t make as much money off of him in the future. No stud fees you know. She said “What’s a gelding?” I thought everyone would understand that, even those not really into horses. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/67 "2009-05-06T16:39:38Z")
American here. I’ve never heard of khazis, kharzis, Biffy, Folger’s Nuggets, or the use of “Monster” as the highest form of praise\*. But I do understand “green apple two-step” immediately. \*although I don’t see the step from “monster” to “pedophile” either. I’d tend to think more Godzilla ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/68 "2009-05-06T17:50:37Z")
So no one else calls it the honey bucket? ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/69 "2009-05-06T18:26:04Z")
Well I believe the technical term for portable toilets at film locations is “honey wagon”. Presumably full of “honey buckets”.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/70 "2009-05-06T18:35:53Z")
> [@](#): > > So no one else calls it the honey bucket? I’ve heard Air Force guys call the facility on their craft a “honey bucket”, but that’s the only place I’ve heard it. > [@](#): > > Well I believe the technical term for portable toilets at film locations is “honey wagon”. Presumably full of "honey buckets I’ve heard the term “honey wagon” used for the sewage trucks that pump out latrines. We used the term at Boy Scout camp. Paul Brickhill uses it in his book **The Great Escape** for the same thing, so the term goes at least back to WWII, and probably earlier. I suspect the application to modern portable chemical toilets is a recent adaptation. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/71 "2009-05-06T20:06:10Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > I’ve used the phrase “the green-apple quickstep” to describe the scramble you have to do when you realize your bowels have turned to liquid and you have to get to a toilet NOW. I learned the meaning of the phrase shortly after seeing [Green Apple Quick Step](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Apple_Quick_Step) perform on _Late Night with Conan O’Brien_. > [@EJsGirl](#): > > In Girl Scouts we called 'em biffys- Bathroom In Forest For You! Ah, a possible explanation for a reference I once saw to “women’s biff” in a _For Better or For Worse_ comic. I figured “biff” was Canadian slang, but [this entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outhouse#Biffy) suggests a Minnesota origin, with the variant being an acronym for “Bathroom In Forest Floor”. [Quote=Le Ministre de l’au-delà] So no one else calls it the honey bucket? [/quote] From my dad and his sisters, I learned the phrase “honey dumpers” as a reference to outhouses, or to “tourist courts” where you had to “go to that little building out back” because there were no toilets in the sleeping rooms. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/72 "2009-05-06T20:11:05Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > So no one else calls it the honey bucket? The main company that provides port-a-lets in the Pacific Northwest is called [Honey Bucket](http://www.honeybucket.com/). That took some getting used to. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/73 "2009-05-07T01:34:26Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > What’s funny about that is that one of the first times I heard the term “monster”, it was applied to some guy I saw in the school cafeteria, and said by my roommate who knew the guy. His name was Branford somethingorother, and apparently he played the sax. Yeah, he does, a bit. His older brother plays something too, I think. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/74 "2009-05-07T01:46:44Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > We always called them kiboes (long i) when I was a kid. This was some vernacular picked up from my brother’s boy scout troop in California. I’ve never heard anyone else use the term since, though. I also remember it as “kybo”. We had a silly kybo song at camp when I was a kid. \*When youre feelin’ drippy An you gotta peepee There’s a place to go Kybo! WHen you’re feeling droopy And you gotta go poopy There’s place to go Kybo! Listen to the froggies in the toilet Stay for a while and you’re liable to enjoy it KYBO!\* ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/75 "2009-05-07T01:58:25Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > Ah, a possible explanation for a reference I once saw to “women’s biff” in a _For Better or For Worse_ comic. I figured “biff” was Canadian slang, but [this entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outhouse#Biffy) suggests a Minnesota origin, with the variant being an acronym for “Bathroom In Forest Floor”. Wow! I haven’t heard that for years! My father used to say “biffy” for the toilet. I just looked up a couple online dictionaries that say only: (bĭf) n. Upper Midwest., pl. -fies also biffs. 1. An outdoor toilet; an outhouse. 2. An indoor toilet. FWIW, he did grow up in the Detroit area. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/76 "2009-05-07T02:07:27Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Yeah, he does, a bit. His older brother plays something too, I think. > > 🆒 As I recall, thier father knows a bit about music as well… (I just flew home yesterday from the 40th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where the Marsalis family is treated as musical royalty) ---
**Author:** ![FrustratedIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@FrustratedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrustratedIdiot)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/77 "2009-05-07T02:23:48Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Nope, Folger’s Nuggets. Apparently it’s a not-in-use-anymore brand of Folger’s coffee. My American colleagues had problems understanding that, not only had Folger’s Nuggets never been sold in Spain, but the Folger’s brand doesn’t exist in Spain (or France, Italy, Germany and Holland, as vouched by the other expats in the team). You’re from Spain? ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/78 "2009-05-07T20:04:47Z")
I’m from Southwest Virginia, where we refer to the typical knit cap worn in the winter as a [“toboggan.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toboggan_(hat)) The first time I mentioned wearing a toboggan to friends after moving to New York City, they looked at me like I was insane. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/79 "2009-05-07T20:21:36Z")
> [@FrustratedIdiot](#): > > You’re from Spain? I thought it was common knowledge 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402/80 "2009-05-07T21:35:46Z")
I wouldn’t assume anything is “common knowledge”. There’s a lot of stuff out there to know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-it-was-common-knowledge/495402.md?page=5)