He could lie with facility, on his feet and ready to leap up into the endless Forest of Untruths, swinging from vine to vine like the lying monkey he is.

So one afternoon a few years back  he's a tad bored and engineers a convo with a pal, so he can end it with the phrase cool beanz and then, pause,  innocently ask if his amigo knows where the saying comes from.

His confident explanation: beaucoup bien was a French Canadian expression, a whole heap of wellness, so to say, and when the Cajuns hightailed it out of Acadia down to Loiusiana in the 1760s they took the phrase with them. And slang being slang, beaucoup bien became 'coup bien, which in turn was anglicized to cool beans by kids in the 50s and 60s.  Then Generation X came along and changed the plural suffix to a 'z', which makes no sense at all but looks way edgy.

And if  that ain't the truth, it might as well be.

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Comment by Kristine_ES on August 7, 2012 at 1:54pm

it's a great phrase. both versions (the truth and the whopper) are perfect. 

 

Comment by Simon Halliday on August 7, 2012 at 12:45am

Who knew ?

Or as my Great Aunt Philomena will say when she reads this...

      "And that is quite enough of that, young man. High hangers, indeed."

Comment by Mike Handley on August 7, 2012 at 12:11am

The phrase's actual origin lies in your opening sentence, strangely enough. When men were monkeys, their "beans" were pendulous, and their penises small. Only when they began walking upright and gravitated to colder climes did the physiology reverse, so that the "beans" could be closer to the body for warmth and the penises closer to the cervix for delivery of sperm. "Cool beans" was originally slang for high-hangers.

Comment by Jeanette Cheezum on August 6, 2012 at 10:06am

HAHA yeah, right.

Comment by Teresa on August 5, 2012 at 10:28pm

I was wondering when "whopper" would factor in.  Good one.

Comment by Angela on August 5, 2012 at 9:12pm

Well, it certainly sounded plausible.  Fun ride.

Comment by Simon Halliday on August 5, 2012 at 3:16pm

Ha ha, yup, but believable hooey, lol.

The French Canadians left the Canadian Maritimes in the 18th century, they went to Loiusiana, the spoke French and beaucoup de bien can translate as a lot of good things.  It's also a common phrase in jazz, which kinda fits the story.

Comment by Gita on August 5, 2012 at 2:49pm

well, speaking as a French Canadian, that's a bunch of hooey, but if you tell it convincingly enough, someone might bite.

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