Quote of the day:

I am terribly shy, but of course no one believes me. Come to think of it, neither would I.
—Carol Channing

According to Ashley Cullins in her new book, Your Favorite Scary Movie, the writer of the original Scream movie, Kevin Williamson, was inspired to create that horror film by of all people, Stephen Sondheim. And his inspiration was not the musical that you might initially think it was, the one about the murderous barber slashing throats with a razor.

No, it was the musical Into the Woods. 

Williamson decided to deconstruct horror films the way Sondheim and Lapine had deconstructed children’s fairy tales. As he told Cullins:

“That was my favorite musical. I saw it a hundred times when I was waiting tables in New York next door to the Martin Beck Theatre,” Williamson continued. “I kind of used that as my inspiration. I sat down and I was like, ‘Where do I start?’”

I wonder if Sondheim was ever aware of it?

 

I just made a pecan pie again.

And for a change nothing seemed to go wrong when I baked. It turned out quite tasty.

 

Growing up in Berks and Lebanon Counties, I used to hear folks talk about needing to “ret up” the room, or at least that’s how I spelled it in my mind. They meant to clean up by that phrase, and I always thought it was a Pennsylvania Dutchism.

Nope. It actually comes from Scotland, and is more properly spelled “redd up”. Huh.

The verbal phrase “redd up” (also seen as “red up,” “ret up,” and even “rid up”) has its roots in a Middle English verb redden, which meant to rescue or free from, or to clear. Today, “redd up” means to clear an area or make it tidy.

The terms “redd” and “redd up” came to the American Midlands with the many Scottish immigrants who settled there, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.).

The word “redd” is still used in Scotland (and Northern Ireland), the dictionary says, and it’s especially common in Pennsylvania in the expression “redd up.”

Learn something new every day!

 

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