'Powerful Katrina' indeed...

September 1, 2005 7:08 PM

The hurricane has my mother remembering a saying from back in the 1930s or 1940s. She says men who were trying to show off their muscles (flexing, striking a pose) would commonly say "Powerful Katrina!" Somewhat in the way I guess we might make a Popeye joke. Try Googling "Powerful Katrina" today of course and I get only hurricane news. Does anyone know: Is the phrase from an old comic strip, radio show, an opera, or did my mom dream the whole thing?
posted by GaelFC to Society & Culture (8 answers total)

Best answer: Seems like it's from a comic strip:

Powerful Katrina
My mother used to read us a book about a little Norwegian woman who solved problems of every sort using brain power and strength. The woman was named Katrina or Katrinka, I think. I thought the title was powerful Katrina, but that yields no results in any search. It could be a translation of a Norwegian book. We lived in Minnesota and perhaps it was a local publisher. I was at an age to be read to in the late forties, so it would have to have been published before 1950. I'd love to see this book again and so would my sister. - Nancy in Sudbury
SOLVED: Powerful Katrinka which can be found in the comic strip called Toonerville Trolley OR Little Old Mrs. Pepperpot by Alf Proysen, solved by Annette in Kent, UK, Diane, and Carl in Union

AbeBooks
posted by Bezbozhnik at 7:21 PM on September 1, 2005

Best answer: Maybe it was as Powerful Katrinka?
posted by tellurian at 7:21 PM on September 1, 2005

Best answer: I do believe she's thinking of "The Powerful Katrinka," a character from the comic strip Toonerville Folks.
posted by cerebus19 at 7:21 PM on September 1, 2005

Snap, Bezbozhnik
posted by tellurian at 7:22 PM on September 1, 2005

No idea, but you may wish to post this over at World Wide Words. Michael Quinion, the site's creator/linguist, is excellent at researching this kind of thing. In his weekly email (which I love), he often addresses words that are relevant to the day's events, so this would be something he might look into. I've written him once or twice, and he's super-fast with the email.

On preview, oh well.
But I still heartily recommend World Wide Words.
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:22 PM on September 1, 2005

Wow, we had a Toonerville Trolley collection at home when I was growing up. I never realized it was so old (ended in 1955).
posted by smackfu at 7:41 PM on September 1, 2005

Response by poster: That's it! Thanks, all!
posted by GaelFC at 9:00 PM on September 1, 2005

Thank you, thank you, Dr. Wu. That site is quite possibly the best thing on the interweb.
</linguistics-geek>
posted by corvine at 5:59 AM on September 2, 2005