The Incident Described.
Me at 6:15 a.m. Ambient lighting on in kitchen. Coffee brewed. Mug in right hand. Sitting at kitchen counter. Left elbow on counter to provide support for head. Eyes closed. Thinking about a popular saying* and its applicability to the life of a writer.
Husband enters room. I mumble something akin to “good morning.” But husband, who is always too awake in the morning, decides to revert to his 8-year-old self, slobber on his finger, then put his finger up my nose. Leading to the following:
- me wide awake;
- me wiggling out of his reach;
- me laughing; and
- me wondering about something.
The Questions Raised.
After the above incident, the focus of our subsequent early morning conversation was on defining exactly what makes up a wet willy. Keeping in mind that this is a PG13 blog, I ask you:
What do you call a slobbery finger up the nose? A wet willy? Or something else entirely?
The Asterisk Explained.
The saying I was thinking about, taken from medicine, was: “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras.” In other words, go with the obvious diagnosis/explanation. Or as applied to this particular post, go with the most recent event in your life, even if it is devoid of profundity and seems a bit silly!
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
LOL – I call it gross and really wonder how such a thing came to be funny in the first place ;-).
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Satin Sheet Diva, I wonder that too– but not enough to research the origins of the Wet Willy! I’ll leave that to other “scholars.”
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I wouldn’t know what to call that other then gross! Wet Willy will always have an R rated definition to me…
And when I hear hoofbeats, I always think unicorns…
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evilsquirrel13, gross is a good description. I agree.
I never think of unicorns moving fast enough for them to make a hoofbeat sound. I always figured that they flew more often than they walked.
But what do I know? I’m still reeling from my morning.
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UNICORNS CANNOT FLY, AS THEY HAVE NO WINGS!!!
Sorry for yelling…I got a little worked up there. A winged horse is a Pegasus.
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J, good point. So right you are. No wings, no flight. Quite logical. Clearly I don’t know my mythical beings as well as I should.
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I was perhaps a little TOO enthusiastic about all things horsy as a kid. 😉
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J, funny the things that used to entertain and we remember along the way. Always good to hear from you.
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I’d say he’s lucky to be alive. Some folks you don’t mess with at 6:15.
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Kate, you bring up a good point. I laughed because somehow it made me feel like a kid again… if only for a few seconds. Strange response, maybe. But we’ve known each other forever and his stupidness took me back in time.
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He’s very lucky!
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That he is! 😉
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He agrees.
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🙂
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I’ve always known a wet willy to be a slobbery finger in the ear. I thought that was bad enough, but up my nose? Eww. Glad my kids never learned that one!
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Carrie, obviously you’re rearing your children right if they don’t know to do this. Somehow or other, Zen-Den, who is generally a perfectly lovely human being, figured this out. Hasn’t annoyed me with it in years. Hoping that it’s years until he tries it again.
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Next time he does it, sneeze on his hand. 😉
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Brilliant idea. *giggle, giggle*
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Zen Den doing something prankish like that?—–NEVER!! Ha! Now you have to think of a comeback:) Boys never do grow up. They just live their lives out in mens’ bodies.
I’ve always remembered hearing the beating of hooves as cats running up and down the stairs.
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Beth, no truer words! There’s always that boy there somewhere.
You’re right. Our cats made hoof-y sounds when they ran around inside the house. So the saying should be: when you hear hoofbeats, think kitties not zebras. 😉
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I don’t think it’s Wet Willy. It means something else, not for this PG13 blog.
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Margaret, see I knew that your career as a high school teacher would lead to an answer! You know things. 😉
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Never heard it called a wet willy.
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Andra, really? Maybe it’s regional. When you’re in elementary school, it’s lots of fun if you’re the giver of the wet willy, but very annoying if you’re the recipient of a wet willy. As you can well imagine!
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