Say That Again?

A while ago I noted when Simon Cowell used the British phrase "chalk and cheese" on American Idol, his cohorts treated him like he had brain damage. That can happen when people hear an odd phrase they're unaware of. But there's an opposite phenomenon.

I once said "the proof is in the pudding" (which originally was "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," and is used here and in Britain) and a friend who heard it thought I got it from the South, where she was raised. Sometimes you figure something you hear as a kid is a local locution.

I was thinking about that while listening to Terry Gross interview Loudon Wainwright on Fresh Air about his new album High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project. This is from the transcript:

Mr. WAINWRIGHT: "High Wide and Handsome" is an expression that I heard growing up because my mother, I mentioned, was from South Georgia. I think it's a Southern expression.

Sorry Loudon, this is a phrase used all across America--just not so much as it once was. It was popular enough that it was a title for a big Hollywood musical/Western in 1937 starring Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott.

On the other hand, it is an American phrase, so if Ryan Seacrest uses it, Simon Cowell can raise an eyebrow.