Idiom Fun: Hot As A What?!

Plastic bracelets from yesteryear; well, 2006 anyway. (9/15/13)

As a teacher in the upstate New York suburb of Greece, New York, and even furthermore a teacher at Greece Athena High School, most folks outside the region have a sense of where I live either by our presumed proximity to Buffalo (it's not that close) or as the school where the autistic student scored "all those threes" in 2006. While Jason McElwain's ESPY Award winning performance (and the incredible circumstances that made the story noteworthy in the first place) continues to be well documented, this post is about a little known corner of the "J-Mac"-verse that I was recently reminded of.

Upon returning from our most recent summer break, I was pleased to find that someone had anonymously gifted me with a unique present. While Jason and I have coached together the past few years (not basketball, but the high school sport that he earned his first athletic recognition as a student-athlete: cross-country running) I had only been part of the Athena school community for a few short months when the "J-Mac" story struck. I had just begun teaching on the building's third floor, which was at that point a separate (other than by name and location) middle school program. I wasn't at the game and I really didn't even get "it." At first.

In the days following the national exposure of his story, all types of t-shirts and memorabilia became common in the school halls, most notably two items with competing J-Macisms: a t-shirt imploring folks to "Stay Focused!" and black and gold (the school's colors) with a secondary phrase which for many outside the Greece community has been lost to the sands of time, "Hot as a Pistol!"

The anonymous gift I received at the start of this school year was an unwrapped black wristband which on one side was impressed in bold gold lettering "Greece Athena Trojans." On the opposing side was the phrase "Hot as a Pistol!" with an illustration of a basketball right of the lettering and a small handgun to the left. You read correctly: a small handgun.

Beyond my appreciation for the many great athletic accomplishments of our school's current and past student-athlete's, I am also a member of the English department, and as such, enjoy the wordplay of interesting (if not necessarily well-turned) idiom. The choice of that particular idiom on a celebratory bracelet such as this to be sold in a school is unusual, especially given its use of a phrase that reflects gun use and includes firearm imagery. The fact that a bracelet with this idiom was distributed at all  recalls "gentler" times(?) when fire arms idioms were not seen in such poor light. Of course, in our current climate, given the horrendous spate of national gun violence tragedies in school settings, a bracelet such as this would never see the light of day.

So just where does the phrase "hot as a pistol" come from? All idioms come from somewhere after all...

Most assuredly, Jason innocently used the phrase to reflect how "on target" he was on the basketball court that evening. He did after all make successive three point shots. Country legend George Jones once famously sang the Gary Lee Gentry lyrics that "Lord, she was 'hotter than a two dollar pistol'" which has a very different connotation. In both cases being "hot as a pistol" is a decidedly positive state to be in. The irony here is that in the past being "hot as a pistol", two dollar or otherwise, was actually not a good thing.

I would imagine that initially the idiom was intended to reflect the poor quality of an inexpensive (two dollar) pistol. Being "cheap" (and small), an inexpensive pistol is likely to yield significantly higher chamber pressures (hotter) than a more costly counterpart. Additionally, a cheap firearm is made of lesser quality materials, and will heat up quickly when fired; cheap metal doesn't conduct heat as well as heavier, more expensive metal. Being hot as pistol may have been a phrase turned to suggest something that, when used, was revealed to be of a lesser quality.

More modern translations, however, are more in line with J-Mac's intent. One online slang dictionary defines a "pistol" as "a person who is bright, quick, or energetic," for example in phrases such as hot as a pistol. Interestingly this new detonation of the noun pistol does dissipate the gun connotation from the phrase making it somewhat less insensitive. Of course, the gun graphic beside the quote on the bracelet reinforces the less desirable connotation, reinforcing the original (less positive) gun motif.  

Also lost to time is the side note, confirmed on Wikipedia, that Jason's Speech/Language Pathologist throughout high school, who was in attendance that night, later assisted him in "coin(ing) alternative language expressions to his now-famous 'hot as a pistol' phrase." One can only guess at what additional phrases were never given credence by making their way onto tee shirts and bracelets, but thankfully, the hot as an idiom has done nothing the diminish the overwhelmingly inspirational message of McElwain's feat.

The fantastic good news is, that either in the past or present, that amazing Youtube footage, and the cultural icon it led to, has not lost its very positive connotation.

Jason McElwain (J-Mac) and I coaching at the 2012 Section V X-C Championship.

Sources:
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-152405.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/idioms/pistol
J-Mac's ESPN story

'Nuff Read: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first day of summer break, now nearly two weeks ago(!), as my wife and I were perusing stacks at Barnes and Noble we came across The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kankwamba and Bryan Mealer. It is appropriate that the title give the impression of being a fable, as in many ways it is, but it is the novel's subtitle, Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, that reveals that this book is in fact a memoir, and in many ways a survival story. My wife works in the realm of environmental sciences, and I am a high school English teacher, so this book, at least ion the surface offered something of interest for both of us. This engaging tale relates how an enterprising teenager in Malawi builds a windmill from scraps he finds around his village and brings electricity--and a future--to his family.

As part of the Barnes and Noble quickie recap says: "Enchanted by the workings of electricity as a boy, William had a goal to study science in Malawi's top boarding schools. But in 2002, his country was stricken with a famine that left his family's farm devastated and his parents destitute. Unable to pay the eighty-dollar-a-year tuition for his education, William was forced to drop out and help his family forage for food as thousands across the country starved and died."

This is William's story of growing up in a poor, war-torn African nation and how he uses a love of learning and science (neither of which he is very good at in the beginning) to create a future of possibilties for himself and his village beyond that which they appear to be destined for.

I found this book to be very insightful about how those living in other parts of the world value the opportunity of a secondary education, perhaps much more than those of us living in a nation where it is mandated. I wondered how many of my students would walk 5 kilometers daily to go to the worst available high school, just to have the chance to work hard enough to go to a better one? William's story, and the circumstances under which he succeeds are amazing and presented in a language that does not require an anthropology degree.

This book also struck me as the type of selection that educators should read for some insight into how we can communicate the value of learning and the many avenues one can take to reaching their goals. The Boy Who harnessed the Wind is the type of novel that school's seeking to promote cross-discipline reading should embrace, though given the lack of hip urban lingo and absence of sparkling vampires, I am unsure how quickly it would move through some approval processes... I would be curious to read what others (science teachers, students, etc.) think, and highly recommend this book as an engaging summer read.

Race on the Ridge 5k

Run: 3.1 in :19:31 min. @ 8:00 a.m. + 2 miles prior to the race
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 43°F, 76% Humidity, Wind: From W @ 8 mph; feels like 38°F.
Pace: 6:18 min./mi.
Course: Around the GIGANTIC shopping mall in the sunny suburb of Greece, NY!
Official Results: Available here courtesy YellowJacket Racing.

Pre-Run Ruminations: The inaugural Race on the Ridge 5k is, in part, a benefit for Michael Bliss, a young man who man who was born and raised in Greece, NY, the town in which I currently work.

During his third year of college he was the victim of an act of violence by three young men. As a result of this incident, Michael has been left a quadriplegic, having lost the use of his hands and being paralyzed from the waist down. Following rigorous rehabilitation, Michael is now at home and is attending Out-Patient Rehab. Michael is working very hard on his road to recovery and is determined to walk again and regain use of his hands. Ultimately, Micheal's goal is to get better and be a contributing member of the Greece Community. (NOTE: Info from a foreword on the registration form written by Micheal's grandmother.)

Pretty heavy and, ultimately, inspiring stuff... my goals for this morning continue to be to simply have fun going for a nice run in an area of my extended community that I have often had the opportunity to drive my car (and occasionally my bicycle!) down, but have not run before. I suppose if the course is "flat" enough (something I'll discover early on as I'm hoping to arrive with enough time to run the course in advance of "racing" it) a fair goal would be between :19:00! and :19:45--the prior of which would represent my besting a long-established PR at the distance.

Post-Race Reflections: A hearty (but small) group of runner turned out for this morning's run. Among the total registered were some local "greats," as well as a number of folks who were there just for "fun." (I heard a couple of high school students standing at the start behind me recognize as much--they were there for fun, too.) The weather was perfect for a run of this sort and, despite a fairly strong headwind the first mile-and-a-half, the course was as flat and potentially fast as I had hoped.

In the end, my time was respectable, though I did not really contend for anything, but that was not really the point. After congratulating some of my former (and current) students for their having finished the run, I took off prior to the wards ceremony. One thing that was a little odd (and to be honest, I may have just not heard it, or perhaps it was brought up more ta the awards ceremony which was to be inside the mall and therefore more comfortable for the spectators) was the emphasis on the race's purpose being "the re-opening of Ridge Road," rather than the potential financial support generated from the run to aid Michael Bliss in his rehab.

In the end, I suppose, it doesn't matter so much what the speechifying about the event was, or even why folks attended in the first place, but that some monies were generated to assist this man.