People's Names Get Attached to Things... Quiz

Answer: Kilroy

During World War II, the phrase "Kilroy was here" became ubiquitous anywhere American GIs were present. It was often accompanied by a simple cartoon drawing of a guy with a long nose peering over a fence. Today we'd call this a meme. Soldiers scrawled it anywhere, ostensibly to announce their presence.

Messages written, often anonymously, which remain in public view, draw varied responses. If we like it, it might be considered art; if we deem it offensive or unwanted, because of content or location, it's graffiti. The idea for Kilroy may have originated earlier. An Australian equivalent dating from WWI - "foo was here" - has been noted, likewise with the name, "Chad" from British soldiers.

Answer: Katy

"Katy bar the door" is another American phrase, most often heard in the South. It simply means look out, trouble is on the way. Phrases.org.uk finds the earliest use in print to be from "The Louisiana Democrat" newspaper in 1872, with the name spelled as Katie.

A Scottish folk song "Get Up and Bar the Door" dates from 1776, and could be a connection, although the woman in question wasn't named Katy.

Answer: Davy Jones'

Davy Jones' locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the sea. It is used euphemistically for drowning, or perishing in a shipwreck. Unfortunate sailors were "sent to Davy Jones' locker" by the storms, the fates, their pirate enemies or whomever. Who or what was the original Davy Jones, the sailors' devil, is unclear; probably not the Monkees' singer or the glam star who changed his name to David Bowie.

A reference to Davy Jones as a negative entity occurs in Daniel Defoe's 1726 novel "Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts."

Answer: Elvis

"All right, all right. ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING. I've told you straight up at this point. You know that. He has left the building. He left the stage and went out the back with the policemen and he is now gone from the building." The quote is from promoter Horace Logan at the Louisiana State Fair in 1956. It was the middle of the show, with other acts to follow, and the crowd wouldn't stop whistling, hollering and cheering. How would you have liked being next on stage?

Through the 1970s the phrase was repeated at Elvis' concerts to mollify the crowd and get them headed to the exits, and eventually it became iconic and migrated into pop culture. Now it's used in any number of situations, as a punch line to denote finality, for instance at a sporting event, or even euphemistically to describe someone's death.

Answer: Hobson's

Hobson's choice is really no choice at all. Consensus fixes the idiom to livery stable owner Thomas Hobson (1544-1631) of Cambridge, England. He offered customers the horse near the door or none at all. The totally unpalatable option is what makes the "choice" of Hobson. He had a good reason, namely that customers, when give a real choice of his forty steeds, always picked the same few horses, thus wearing them out. Evidently Hobson was able to stay in business despite running counter to another cliche - "the customer is always right."

The idiom is succinctly summed up by the phrase "take it or leave it." For a most dramatic and poignant rendering of Hobson's choice, watch "Sophie's Choice," the 1982 film starring Meryl Streep.

Answer: Johnny

Johnny on the spot means being in the right place at the right time; being right there to provide what is needed. The origin of the phrase is murky, but it was listed as a new saying and defined in the April 1896 issue of the "New York Sun."

My favorite story here concerns creative business folks. An enterprising young woman in Chico, California started a company in 1998 with this name, successfully playing on the slang term "john" for toilet. That company still thrives. However, fifteen years earlier, Earl Braxton of Michigan had the idea but took it further. He marketed portable units called "Here's Johnny" trading on the famous phrase used by Ed McMahon to introduce Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. Carson sued to stop the unwanted use of his name and eventually won on appeal in 1983, putting an end to "Here's Johnny" toilets.

Answer: Jack

To go with "Johnny on the Spot," we have the similar but much older "Jack-in-the-Box." The child's toy which pops a clown out of a music box when the tune hits the designated point (ha ha) has been around since at least the 1500s. Royalty in France and Germany requested custom made versions called "devil-in-a-box" for their children.

One origin theory concerns 14th century English prelate Sir John Schorne. In folklore, he cast the devil into a boot to protect his town. When skullduggery was discovered, the devil must have popped out of the boot. One of the first appearances in literature was in John Foxe's 1563 book, "Actes and Monuments." He used the term as an insult describing dishonest tradesmen who sold people things then delivered them empty boxes.

Answer: Tom

The story of Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom is one of our FT favorites, albeit apocryphal. Tom was the one wiseguy who couldn't restrain himself and respect the modesty of the Coventry lass who rode naked through the streets to protest her husband's tax policy and bring relief to the regular townspeople.

There is historical evidence of the principals, Godiva and her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia having lived in the 11th century before the Norman Conquest. They were evidently devout and benevolent patrons who donated valuable artifacts to various religious institutions. The legend of the naked ride didn't spring up until much later.

Answer: Murphy

Murphy's Law is the humorous, unofficial edict which says that if anything can go wrong, it will. This is the Rodney Dangerfield of philosophies, well grounded in the human tendency to take a pessimistic view toward life's inevitable hard times, or maybe just to be realistic about the tendency of things to get screwed up.

The "law" originated at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 1949. Captain Edward A. Murphy was an engineer on project MX981, testing the amount of deceleration a pilot in a crash could withstand. Some technician wired a transducer wrong and Murphy cursed him out, saying "if there's any way to do it wrong, he'll find it." The project manager appreciated the sentiment, and wrote it down. Soon others were using it to make sure everything was in order, and Murphy's Law was born.

Answer: Mickey

Think of the film noir or gritty novel where the hard boiled detective or the unsuspecting ingenue gets delivered a drink with a knockout punch. They were just "slipped a Mickey Finn," usually shortened to "a Mickey."

Michael "Mickey" Finn was bartender in Chicago at the turn of the 19th century. He put "knockout drops" in patrons' drinks, took them into the back alley, and robbed them. Usually they remembered nothing. The sedative-hypnotic he allegedly used was chloral hydrate. Authorities shut down his joint in 1903, although how he stayed in business that long is puzzling. The term is less common today, but taking advantage by doctoring an alcoholic drink, whether for robbery or sexual assault purposes, is a problem that's still with us.