Orrin “Dipsy Doodle” Hatch: "She was asking for
it"
Orrin Grant Hatch, has been the
President pro tempore of the United States Senate since January 2015, a member of the Republican Party, he serves as
the senior United States Senator for Utah, and, since November 2016, an
outspoken Trump enabler.
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| Orrin “Dipsy Doodle” Hatch. |
Hatch, a staunch supporter of
capital punishment and harsh “3-Strikes” legislation, was quick to chalk Great
Leader Trump’s recent breast fondling, pussy grabbing, and reporter slandering
up to a ''Dipsy Doodle.''
This is quite fitting, as “Dipsy Doodle” was famously last
evoked by Ronald Reagan to belittle foes of trickle-down economics, genius idea
being trumpeted by the current administration.
Mr. Reagan's characterization of estimates by
Democratic politicians that tax cuts and defense spending would drive up the
deficit as ''real dipsy doodle.'' Evidently the President was deeply impressed
by the dance-hall lingo of the 1930's.
''Dipsy Doodle'' was a song composed by Larry Clinton
in 1937 and dealt with the reversal of words and expressions, such as ''You
love I and me love you.'' The origin of the phrase is labeled as unknown by
Merriam-Webster, but to speculate, dipsy might come from dipsomania, now called
''alcoholism,'' and the slang shortening to dipso (from the Greek dipsa,
''thirst''). A second possibility: from the dance dip, in which the man pulls
the woman toward him, then bends his knee and swoops forward as if imitating
Groucho Marx's walk.
The doodle part is easier: In German, Dudeltopf means
''nightcap,'' the sort worn by a simpleton. The doodle added a humorous
alliterative fillip to the phrase; even today, the verb to doodle means ''to
draw idly,'' giving some substance to the theory of etymologists who argue that
it is a variant of dawdle. Doo is the sound of the simpleton, as he fiddles
with doodads and doohickeys. (Doo wha'?)
As baseball fans know, the dipsy doodle was taken up
as the name for a sinking curve ball, or sinker, or dip. ''Dutch'' Reagan began
his career as a baseball announcer, and may have picked up the phrase in this
phase of his career. Without delving into linguistic psychohistory, it seems likely
that the President associated ''a real dipsy doodle'' with trickery or
chicanery, as the phrase for a curve ball soon became a favorite with mystery
writers: ''I opened the front door, leaving the key in the lock,'' wrote
Raymond Chandler in ''High Window.'' ''I wasn't going to work any dipsy doodle
in this place.''
