How did I come to associate the word "peripatetic" with the Kool-Aid Man
July 19, 2024 7:19 PM Subscribe
In conversation tonight, I revealed that my definition of the word "peripatetic" is "like the Kool-Aid Man". I realize that this is not the dictionary definition of the word. How did I arrive at this definition?
I know that I read an article or profile as teen, sometime in the mid-90s, that repeatedly or forcefully described someone as "peripatetic, like the Kool-Aid Man", and that's how I came to know the word and acquire the meaning it has for me today. Does anyone recall what that article might have been, or who it could have been referring to? This definitely wasn't in a book, anthology, or essay collection - it was in a magazine. I know that my family had a Newsweek subscription at the time, and I was a Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction reader, but I can't say with confidence that it came from either of those publications. It's a long shot, I know.
I know that I read an article or profile as teen, sometime in the mid-90s, that repeatedly or forcefully described someone as "peripatetic, like the Kool-Aid Man", and that's how I came to know the word and acquire the meaning it has for me today. Does anyone recall what that article might have been, or who it could have been referring to? This definitely wasn't in a book, anthology, or essay collection - it was in a magazine. I know that my family had a Newsweek subscription at the time, and I was a Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction reader, but I can't say with confidence that it came from either of those publications. It's a long shot, I know.
Best answer: This is a long shot but... people call Ken Kesey and his contemporaries peripatetic a lot (accurately). Is there a CHANCE you read something about The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and associated it with the Kool-Aid Man?
posted by babelfish at 7:27 PM on July 20 [2 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 7:27 PM on July 20 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: @Calvin and the Duplicators - Thanks for that suggestion! It looks like that review is about a book published in 2016, which is unfortunately much later than the article I read originally.
@babelfish - That's a great suggestion. I was definitely at an age where I was reading about Ken Kesey and countercultural figures with some fascination, so I can easily see myself forming an association there.
posted by Transmissions From Vrillon at 10:12 AM on July 21 [1 favorite]
@babelfish - That's a great suggestion. I was definitely at an age where I was reading about Ken Kesey and countercultural figures with some fascination, so I can easily see myself forming an association there.
posted by Transmissions From Vrillon at 10:12 AM on July 21 [1 favorite]
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which includes:
...the only reliable deus ex machina to a suburban child’s call is the arrival of the Kool-Aid Man, Campbell understands the hard certainties of flux and decay holding them at bay with a rueful, yet tender, nostalgia for the artful and elegant whimsies of anachronism. Here, the peripatetic rootlessness of an adventurous young couple...
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 4:50 AM on July 20 [1 favorite]