Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
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Texan99:
January 8th, 2011 at 11:34 am
“No zhizhing and dripping . . . .” You’ve inspired me to pull out my copy of “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers.” So much for productivity this morning.
Madelynn:
October 27th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Our father used to tell us, when we did stupid or silly things, that we were as “crazy as a betsey (sp) bug”. We have southern roots.
I was talking with a friend of mine last night and she that it referred to the infamous “begbug”. I disagreed. But she is one of those friends who thinks she is always right!
So, today I did “Ask.com”
The explanation helps me immensely. Thanx,
Lowell Nelson:
March 16th, 2012 at 7:04 am
I’d rather be “crazyier than a betsy bug” than a Republican ( “worthless as a tit on a boar hog!” ).
Jessica:
March 23rd, 2012 at 11:47 am
Sooo….. I’m still trying to figure out What a Bessie Bug is?!?!? Some sort of Beetle is all that I’m gathering from what I read
Lue Leshoure III:
June 19th, 2012 at 8:03 am
I heard the Betsy Bug flies around so irratic and fast that it spends
a large amount of time knocked out from running into objects.
Mel:
June 30th, 2012 at 8:52 pm
@Lowell: Your comment is totally off topic here (as is mine, but the need for corrective balance justifies mine).
By and large, Republicans THINK, while Democrats simply FEEL. For example, Democrats can’t (or won’t) rise above their feelings of misplaced compassion to see that spending other people’s money works only until they run out of other people’s money. Think I’m wrong? Name a country that has become more prosperous under socialism.
Note that not one word you wrote is logical; you were merely spewing your hate feelings, and that does not speak well of you. Note also that I have shut you down without calling you either crazyier [sic] or worthless, you dirty rat fink. [:-)
@Lue: I like your explanation. Extending your thought, it seems logical that, after repeatedly crashing his airplane into a mountainside, even a Republican pilot would become crazy as a Bessie Bug! [:-)
DARON:
July 19th, 2012 at 12:53 am
In the winter time when fire wood is burned you can find bessie bug resting in or on the logs. These bugs just sit there and do not move even when they are placed in the heat. Yes then move slow from staying outside in the cold but it is crazy to stay on the log and die
Alexandra:
July 19th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
I am a born and raised Texan and I have never heard the expression, “crazy as a bessie bug” or “as a bedbug”. I must agree that your explanation was somewhat helpful in answering the question, but was primarily your personal loathing of bugs, not that they’re super awesome, or anything. One thing that I feel I must correct you on, is that the phrase is not “kitty cornered”, but rather “catty-cornered”. You are correct that it is derived from “cater-cornered”, which means diagonal.
joe2:
November 2nd, 2012 at 11:29 am
I am from Tennessee, and have heard that term ever since I can remember. I would agree with Lue Leshoure III that the Betsy Bug flies around so irriticly, circulling, and seemingly to get no where, until if soon falls out from exhausting. I would compare it to “like running around like a chicken with his head cut off…”
CeCe:
November 2nd, 2012 at 2:05 pm
I have witnessed those gigantic beetles flying and they will land anywhere they feel like it including your head, no matter how loud you scream and run. They do fly around erraticlly, wings buzzing loudly so “crazy as a bessie bug” is accurate. I’ve heard it mainly from older relatives in Southwest TX. I live in Northeast TX and have never heard anyone say it.
Betsybugs:
November 25th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Lue,
I love that description but I have never heard it before.
Betsybugs:
November 25th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
My mother was born in Texas and that may be where I learned it…or it could have been in Kansas or Georgia. My name is Betsy and my nickname as a child was Bug so I adopted the name and find it quite fitting.
Ivadell lewis:
January 10th, 2013 at 9:26 pm
Iwas born in Tennessee. What I remember about the Bessie bug was a small mound of dirt. my grandpa told us kids to get right over the mound and to repeat several times. Bessie bug, Bessie bug come out, your house is on fire ,,, keep singing it and the little bug will come out
,,,I have tried it and it works. Today is my birthday I’m 85 years old today and I’ve experienced this for myself!!!!!
beverly stanford:
March 24th, 2013 at 5:07 am
ok was having a debate in the middle of night about Bessie bugs seeing how we work in a psych unit, but I wanted to say the song we sang was lady bug lady bug fly away home your house is on fire and the kids are alone umm a bug by any other name is still a but ?
Texican:
April 17th, 2013 at 10:57 pm
I grew up hearing the phrase “crazy as a Bessie bug” but always thought it was just some made up expression by locals and was not known outside the local area. I’m glad I found this page because now I know that I am not “crazy as a Bessie bug” as my Dad always said.
Donna:
April 20th, 2013 at 11:13 am
I was born and raised in Tennessee and still make my home in Tennessee. I’ve heard “crazy as a Bessie bug” all my life…as well as “running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” Here in Tennessee, both phrases are closely related!
Linda:
May 4th, 2013 at 6:16 pm
@Ivadell the expression we learned in Ky was doodlebug, doolebug come out your house is on fire….and yes, crazy as a bessy bug was a common saying of my Mother as well as running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.
David:
September 10th, 2013 at 11:05 am
Mel, you are simply wrong. You got it backwards. Republicans are the ones whose policies/behaviors are based on emotions, while Democrats think. That follows from the fact that almost all academics are Democrats, while the rabble, particular those who subscribe to Fox News as a source of (mis)information are republicans.
Interesting that Lowell used the expression “worthless as a tit on boar hog.” I heard that expression frequently when I was growing up, mostly from my mother who grew up in Little Dixie (SE Oklahoma). I have rarely heard it since, mostly from people from that area and contiguous parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana. I used it a week or so ago on another forum with reference to my senator Tom Coburn, and have seen it crop up several times since in internet discussions.
Donna:
November 4th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
I was born and raised in Chicago Il and I’ve always heard the phrase Crazy as a Bessie Bug and I am now 57 and still don’t know what a Bessie Bug is lol
lao pengyou:
January 13th, 2014 at 4:51 pm
…unless of course you’re from western pennsylvania where “younses” can go “kitty” corner to the “sammich” shop for a philly cheesesteak :-)).
Ron:
April 10th, 2014 at 10:58 am
So, in other words, you don’t know either!
Ronnie:
April 10th, 2014 at 11:48 am
You must have lived around Kenmore ave., as this area was “home” to many of us Alabama/Tennessee *hillbillies* for many years. It is now an upper-class residential section of town, but for many years housed the poor, lower class (which is what my family was).
I also lived in Chicago, but now live in Alabama and we have always used the phrase “Crazy as a Bessie bug”, which we inherited from our mother.
Ifraj Schkoor:
June 17th, 2014 at 7:50 pm
Sooo….ma didn’t make that up.. Hmph~~
Teresa:
January 15th, 2015 at 12:06 pm
lao pengyou – you can’t get a philly cheesesteak in western PA. Philly is in eastern PA…all others are fakes
Nita:
February 14th, 2015 at 4:28 pm
I AM FROM Alabama. I was told that a Betsy Bug is so disorientated, and unorganized, flying around aimlessly, that it will fly his “fool self” right into the fire and burn his own “dumb behind” to death.
Folks who have no directions or plans in life are crazy as a BETSY BUG, AMEN.
Rick:
August 16th, 2015 at 4:27 am
David, you are simply wrong. You got it backwards. Democrats are the ones whose policies/behaviors are based on emotions while Republicans think. That most academicians are Democrats is irrelevant since they often practice McCarthyism and simply refuse to hire those who they disagree with, and MSNBC is the source of MISinformation for Democrats.
robert delk:
November 7th, 2015 at 10:16 am
Mai Kaffer poem in German about Pommerania /east Prussia being on fire? I have heard about bessie bug and tits on Boar Hogs my whole live . East Texas
Nadia:
November 10th, 2015 at 3:40 pm
I visited an older relative who was under the weather. While I was there my wrist and arm became very itchy so automatically I scratched, then it became unbearable. When I got home I had welts all over the back of my arm and one on my wrist, over night they joined and became one giant swollen area. I took benadryl and rubbed bacitracin on it. After the swelling left I counted 12 bites all trailing up to my wrist. Now I don’t know if it was from a bedbug, (I didn’t find anything on my clothes) but that was crazy to me. Getting a bug bite is one thing but this critter bit moved less than an inch and bit again 11times, if that wasn’t bad enough then it traveled to my wrist and bit one last time and did it incredibly fast.
PATSY:
February 9th, 2016 at 5:35 pm
another western pennsylvanian! but we used to say “catty-cornered”, not kitty, while eating our chipped ham sammich.
PATSY:
February 9th, 2016 at 5:37 pm
it does sound like a bedbug bite.
thussaiththewalrus:
March 28th, 2016 at 4:40 pm
Wow, could you be more hateful? For your information, it is possible to get “Lancashire Hot Pot” in Maine, and to get “Maine Lobsters” in Denver, and to get “Philly Cheesesteaks” in San Francisco. It is also possible to get “Italian” food ALL OVER THE USA. It is possible to get “Mexican” food ALL OVER THE USA. It is possible to get “Chinese” food ALL OVER THE USA.
YOU don’t “own” the name to anything! FYI, in case you aren’t aware, one can go to various sandwich outlets in the Philadelphia area and get cheesesteaks (hoagies) or (subs) on cold buns, or hot buns, or toasted buns, or grilled buns; and to get meat that was frozen, or is fresh; with or without onions, that can be raw, cooked, baked, or grilled; with or without mushrooms, that can be fresh, or canned, and cooked, or grilled; with or without a variety of cheeses, sliced, or prepared; with or without peppers, either raw, or cooked, and that can be either fresh or canned; with or without pickles, cooked, or cold out of the jar. It is up to the person, to choose their particular preferences, from the items that the shop offers.
THERE IS NO STANDARD RECIPE FOR “PHILLY CHEESESTEAKS” no matter how much you want that to be true. Whether you buy it in Boston, or NYC, or Philadelphia, or Washington DC, or Denver or Las Vegas, or San Francisco, (OR MY KITCHEN) it is the SAME THING!!!!!!!!!
Mike:
April 14th, 2016 at 6:25 pm
Great explanation! Speculation about a substitution of “bed” for “bessie” by us ignorant city-dwellers is very plausible.
Katy Darlington:
September 21st, 2016 at 8:23 pm
I was born and raised in Kentucky, and I have heard the phrase “crazy as a bessbug” all my life (at least 70 years of it).
D.S.:
October 31st, 2016 at 2:08 pm
Lol How did they get on Politics?
BTC:
May 23rd, 2017 at 12:04 pm
My grandma used to say I was crazy as a betsy bug. When I asked why they were crazy, she would say because they fly backwards and shit forwards. Now that is crazy.
Sherry Lynn Barrow:
September 26th, 2021 at 9:26 pm
“youns/younses”, and sammiches/sammages is Cleveland Tennessee speak. I had cousins born and bred in Pennsylvania and they all said “you guys” and pronounced the “d” in sandwich.
Sherry Lynn Barrow:
September 26th, 2021 at 9:37 pm
Ivadell, I am only just turned 63 y/o but my mother used to tell us the same thing. I am a true child of the South from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Texas (grew up an USAF brat, so we moved regular and often.) Here in Virginia, where I currently reside, we have a big issue with gnat swarms and fruit flies. every time I see a fruit fly on a flat surface they are all over the place in no particular pattern and I am reminded of the phrase, “Crazy as a Betsey Bug.” Funny how things we experience as very small children stay with us all our lives and come to mind zillions of times over our life span. I hope that on this day, September 26, 2021 you are still with us and have at least ten more January 10th’s in store for you. Wish you a very belated happy birthday.
Sherry Lynn Barrow:
September 26th, 2021 at 9:44 pm
Yes, I grew up with the headless chicken saying as well. But did any of you ever get told (when you were in and out of the back door more often than the adults preferred) to “Stop roping in and out like okry?” My dad was from just across the north GA line in AL and he called it okry, not okra. He also called grits Georgia Ice Cream…LOL