Away back when I was young, when I couldn’t yet read or write, I often puzzled over the meanings of words that sounded similar to each other.
A case in point was the word “ethyl.” I well remember my father pulling his old two-tone Pontiac up to a gas station pump and announcing to the attendant, “Fill ‘er up with Ethyl!” [gasoline was priced 31.9 at that time.]
I watched reruns of “I Love Lucy” and wondered what Ethel on that program had to do with gasoline? There were many ? Marks hovering over my head in those years. And still are, actually.
Anyway, in my head I rearranged the caption to say, “Fill Ethel up.”
Is the wife’s name “Ethel”?
Away back when I was young, when I couldn’t yet read or write, I often puzzled over the meanings of words that sounded similar to each other.
A case in point was the word “ethyl.” I well remember my father pulling his old two-tone Pontiac up to a gas station pump and announcing to the attendant, “Fill ‘er up with Ethyl!” [gasoline was priced 31.9 at that time.]
I watched reruns of “I Love Lucy” and wondered what Ethel on that program had to do with gasoline? There were many ? Marks hovering over my head in those years. And still are, actually.
Anyway, in my head I rearranged the caption to say, “Fill Ethel up.”
https://www.tricountytimes.com/story/opinion/2019/02/14/fill-8217-er-up-with/5995548007/