it puts the tape measure in it's home...

January 13, 2017 7:24 AM

tell me about this word please: footarackasacky

so when I was a kid my dad used to say this thing, [word] and then press the return button to make the tape measure go back in, and tell me it was the magic word.... years later i am working in a theatrical tech department and i say [word] as i push the button. my legendary tech director hears [word] and then sings a little jingle, says its from the 20's and that's all he remembers and then moves along. what the hell is this word, and the jingle he sings?

first let me spell word as i think it might be spelled:

footarackasacky

now phonetically:

fute (long U as "oo" in food) a rack (as in a shelf to put things) a sack (as in bag to carry things) ee (as in long E sound)

so the little ditty was "footarackasacky and a bottle of gin"

(memory might be dirty, could've been a bottle of rum but i'm 92% certain it was gin)

so then. what the heck is footarackasacky and where did it come from?

posted by chasles to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Best answer: Hold Tight (at ~0:27)? But it doesn't have a reference to gin or rum.
posted by specialagentwebb at 7:31 AM on January 13, 2017 [6 favorites]

Perhaps it is a japanese word? Especially with the 'sake' sound at the end?

Sounds a bit like ふたらかさけ？
Which I guess could be 蓋 (cover)　らか (??)　酒 (sake) ??
Or some brand of sake?
posted by vacapinta at 8:00 AM on January 13, 2017

Fularacky sacky want some seafood mama
posted by bq at 8:30 AM on January 13, 2017 [6 favorites]

I came here to mention the Andrews Sisters song. I had no idea Fats Waller recorded it, too, nor did I know about the writing credit/copyright issues.
posted by zorseshoes at 10:24 AM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: 7 minutes for something that has plagued me since i was 8... goodness.

so it seems my dad must have miss heard it, and its quite possible i misremembered the tech director. that is clearly the reference, and literally the little tune i remember and have sung to myself for 20 years

thanks internet friends!
posted by chasles at 12:05 PM on January 13, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's also a call-out at the end of the Barry Manilow song "Jump Shout Boogie (skip ahead to 2:12)," to which I had to learn a Jazzercize routine in gym class in the early '80s. Slip the talcum to me, Malcolm.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 12:10 PM on January 13, 2017 [2 favorites]