#224 Tidbits

Just a couple of tidbits today. Starting with the word “tidbits” itself. Now, interestingly, my spellchecker has no problem with the spelling tidbits. “Tid” as in tiddlywinks and “bits” as in less than a whole bite. But from time to time I read a book from someone from the other English speaking countries and they use the term “titbits.” Now I’m not sure how they differ but I guess the British variation, being older, carries a bit more sense with it. If in fact “titbits” means anything, it most likely means the little bit of nursing fluid left over for the runt of the litter. Or, as those last cow squeezings that may be put to use in less than 10 gallon ways. Or, perhaps it refers to bits of cheese, obviously diary and therefore cow mammary in origin—udderly delicious, as they say. The first syllable of the word titbits has enjoyed a checkered past in this country. We have changed it to “teet” in polite company and most often when referring to animal manipulations. As in: The farmer squeezed the cows teet and out came a frothy fluid. When referring to human appurtenances the word takes on a more problematic usage. Certain cable channels use the syllable as a suffix, after the word man, and say it quire freely. Lately they have used the syllable in a stand-alone form, but only when uttered by a female. Usually, a term of more medical or general origin is used to refer to the chest region of the female anatomy. It’s a fair guess that our puritan origins are the cause. Particularly as Puritanism emerged during the Louis the XIV era, a period of both chest-baring and elaborate codpiece-enhanced fashions. Prudish Puritans started to suppress all reference to reproductive body parts. So when the plainly dressed, stark, homespun puritans came to the shores of America, the term tid emerged as a replacement for the more titillating term referred to earlier. I have no idea where we got to tiddlywinks from there. My dictionary says tiddly is an illicit grog shop from one of the medieval periods of prohibition, where they served beer and grog and big plates of food by wenches in various states of dishabille. Kind of like that place we have today that’s named after, um, owls. Wink wink.
That’s all on that bit. It occurred to me the other day there are some pluses and minuses to suffering as I do from a milder form of multiple personality disorder. A minus is that the biggest problem with multiple personality disorder is that you’re never sure which medication to take for whom. A plus is, you have a plausible excuse if you’re caught using the carpool lane. But the biggest problem with more than one person in your head is your points of view. Half empty or half full? Not that having more than one personality hasn’t given me an up kind of life. I’ve been stood up and held up and beat up...
America, ya gotta love it.