— following phrases such as "This won't affect..." or "I wonder what this will do to..."
“a calibrated anvil”
— referring to the contents of his heavy flight bag
“A physicist is one who paces across a circle and then calculates the circumference to three decimal places.”
“A physicist is someone who knows what’s wrong with a doorbell, but can’t fix it.”
“Able to sit up and take nourishment!”
— when asked "how are you?"
“Adjective noun! (sometimes “Adjective noun object of ill repute!”)”
— curse
“all up to my work in ears”
“Ambidextrous”
— equally awkward with either hand
“Ampeces”
— plural of Ampex
“an empty box full of (something)”
“and if so, why not?”
“as useless as tits on a boar”
“as wrong as a three dollar bill”
“assiform curve”
— a curve with two humps separated by a cusp, like a cross-section of buttocks
“bale of hay (1)”
— shredded wheat
“bale of hay (2)”
— tossed salad
“banana wagon”
— Bonanza airplane
“balls of the Pope!”
“button it up”
— finished working on something, put the covers, cases, etc. back on.
“bydamnic”
— dynamic as a microphone or loudspeaker
“case-hardened chicken”
— deep-fried
“cerebration”
— heavy thinking
“circus diagram”
— circuit diagram
“Colder than a well digger’s fanny in the Klondike”
“Confusion switch”
“dogs are funny people”
“Donnerblitzen”
— Donner Scientific, or Systron-Donner, maker of electronic counters and other instruments
“dripolator”
— A Clough-Brengle swept frequency audio oscillator
“electricity hole”
— an outlet
“Episcolopian”
— Episcopalian
“Excuse me all to hell”
“firecrackers”
— electrolytic capactors charged up, making a big snap when discharged with a tool
“Flatter than a bookkeeper’s fanny.”
“frequently”
— frequency
“fuddle around”
“fundamentally wrong “fundamental wrongness””
“get down to brass tacks”
“gilding the lily”
“going to hell in a bucket.”
— most people say "in a handbasket" but for Paul it was always a bucket.
“Gotta go see a man about a dog”
— bathroom break
“Hawaiian piano”
— sound of a piano on a tape machine with wow and flutter
“high futility”
— high fidelity
“horsepistol”
— hospital
“hotter than a $2 pistol”
“hotter than the hubs of...”
“I had a photographic memory, but it didn’t develop.”
“I like the sound of a trombone. It has that nice farty quality.”
“I never cease to be amazed that ...”
“I won’t swear and be damned that ..., but ...”
“I would be willing to bet a hypothetical sum, which I do not possess, that...”
“If this works it’ll be a mackerel.”
— miracle
“I’ll sell it to you for five bucks, and I’ll give you the five bucks to pay for it.”
“I’ll try. That’s all a steer can do.”
“I’m doing all that I can, and the easy ones twice!”
— when asked "how are you doing?"
“I’m going fifth. It’s too late to go forth.”
“I’m gonna gather up my marbles and go home. or, I’m gonna gather up my marbles and go fifth.”
“I’m off in a cloud of camel dung!”
“iggorant”
— ignorant
“iniquity, e.g. “back in iniquity, we...””
— antiquity
“It never ceases to amaze me that...”
“It’s hot enough top sweat the balls off a billiard table.”
— very hot day
“Jesus wept!”
“ust as a matter of academic curiosity”
“just shows to go ya that...”
“Let’s go third.”
— earlier than going forth; opposite of going fifth
“like shootin’ fish in a rain barrel”
— not original to Paul, but he liked to use the expression
“like waving a bull in front of a red flag”
“logerator”
— A circuit he devised and patented which produces an output voltage approximately the logarithm of the input
“looks like a sack of doorknobs”
— ugly
“lower than whale manure”
“maggot”
— magnet
“my hind leg”
— One time Paul had a leg injury, which he kept referring to as such.
“Not if the meat’s any good.”
— when asked by a waitress: Do you want any steak sauce?
“Not much madder than usual.”
— reply to "how are you?" or similar greeting.
“Pardon my French”
“Poor old Klipsch! Couldn’t pour beer (or piss) out of a boot ”
— with directions written on the heel! When he had made a mistake
“Pour on the coal”
“Presbytooshin”
— Presbyterian
“puddle jumper”
— Stinson Voyager, and maybe others of his airplanes
“rechewed beans”
— refried beans
“egustipated”
— disgusted
“research with the emphasis on re”
— when asked what he was doing in the lab
“sales propaganda”
— brochures and such
“Saturday Evening Pest”
— Post
“screwhammer”
“scum up a scheme”
“Senegambian”
— African-American person
“shake like a dog shittin’ peach seeds”
“shit ‘n’ molasses!”
“Shit!......and two is eight”
“Sitting in the shade of the room cooler.”
— air conditioner
“slobber”
— solder
“Sly drool”
— slide rule
“Smashed potatoes”
“son of a sea cook”
“Spectacles, testicles, watch, and wallet”
— With a hand motion to each, being sure he was ready to go.
“spinning our wheels”
“spit-sizzlin’ hot”
— test for a soldering iron
“Still trying to unscrew the inscrutable.”
— reply to "how are you?" or similar greeting.
“swear on the Allied catalog”
“talking paper”
— scratch paper on which he sketched while explaining things. Scratch pads were made from obsolete price sheets and the like which had been printed on one side only.
“tape machine”
— tape recorder
“The better the speaker, the worse it sounds. until other sources of distortion and inaccuracy have been eliminated”
“The Lord doesn’t let a man keep what he doesn’t use.”
— searching for a mislaid tool or part
“the whole shootin match”
“There is no such thing as ‘high fidelity’. Either you’ve got fidelity or you’ve got infidelity.”
“There’s a slightly off-color story about...”
“They make miniature tubes and miniature loudspeakers, but they have yet to come up with a miniature 32-foot wavelength.”
“They try, but they don’t focal.”
— trifocal glasses
“trying to unscrable an egg”
— big problem
“vale of tears”
“vicious damped”
— viscous damped
“vootvum”
— proununciation of VTVM
“Wanna see some dirty pictures?”
— Then he pulls out a graph or sketch of something from his pocket notebook.
“When I make my second million I’m going to ___. (The first million’s too hard to make.)”
“Where in the be-bloody hell is___?”
“Where in the corn bread hell...”
— when looking for something
“whole ball of wax”
“Wiggle tube oscilloscope”
“words of one cylinder”
— syllable
“You are a gentleman and a scholar and a good judge of bad liquor.”
