Wow, now that title is a mouthfull. It actually hurts the eyes to to see it in print as well! It's time for the long awaited "next D."
The Diehm family has long been known for it's internal lexicon. Maybe we're not as unique as I think we are, but I would venture to say our family has invented,or appropriated more words, phrases, and jargon than any ten families and put it to use for our enjoyment and apocryphal usage. "Like what" you ask? How 'bout "dun-duhs" for example. The problem of course is that most if not all Diehmisms are unspellable, they pass down only as oral tradition, so there may be argument (what, diehms argue?) about spelling.
A dun-duh is a Christmas gift whose name can not be mentioned within family hearing so as to keep it a secret. So it might go like this..."what am I getting for Christmas?" "Well a dun-duh, and a dun-duh-duh..." You get the idea. It gets to the point because Diehmisms take on a life of their own, anything secret could become a "Dun-duh"
Here are a couple of other choice Diehmisms in keeping with the theme, only "D" samples will be included.
DOOTY pronounce "doot tee"
doing dooty is basically, well, taking a crap...like the time when in stitches a boy friend of my sister will forever remember when a little brother ( present company suspected) called out to his mother "Mommy, Mommy, I got to do dooty and I can't get my zipper undone to take down my pants. Trust me, doing dooty has always been a big deal in my home.
Dunnamickadoody (pronounced of course, dunnamickadoody)
Sometime circa 1959-1960 at a circus attended by the Diehm family some glorious ringmaster in a rapturous response to some trapese artist's trick called out at the top of his lungs, "Dunnamickadoody, he did it!
Well, that was like frosting on the cake to Papa Diehm, and forever after, any successful venture a Diehm child would make was met with Dunnamickadoody she did it! or the like...
Making up your own language of course has its roots often in baby talk, which certainly applied to Diehmisms... or colloquial "Pittsburghese type slang" Internal family code language is never meant to exclude, nor is it ever really intended to be explained until now. In the world of public diaries (blogs), revealing the aprocryphal word usage of a family may bring down the wrath of the ancestors who took their family words with them to the grave, so...I am revealing these words at the risk of great peril or should i say "Dunnamickadoody, Diehm does a demonstrative dooty as a dun-duh for the world to experience."
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Ah, dooty was one of my favorite things about the Diehm household. Pictures can attest to that.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Diehmism would have to be the "one-boner" or "two-boner" reference to chicken wings. Nothing like a good argument about people "hogging the one boners".
Yeah, I contend that Bill Diehm was the first person to ever refer to wings in this way. If it isn't on the list of Diehmisms it should be. If you doubt it's greatness, simply read the following fact:
ReplyDeleteSue has always preferred "two boners"!
HAHAHAHA that is the joy of this Diehmism.
Ah yes- one and two boners....and once you start using those terms-- you find yourself unable to refer to them any other way!!
ReplyDeleteIn a time when "that's what she said" (TWSS) is ever-looked for in conversation, explaining my experience and wing-eating techniques/preferences doesn't go too far without raining ridicule for adhering to descriptive terms as mentioned above.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Diehmisms that I've NEVER heard or seen practiced elsewhere is sitting in or just referring to someone's "basement". Unique for sure.