THE CAT'S PAJAMAS XXVIII

Tad Tuleja

 

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phrases

 

TAKE A GANDER

 

As a slang term for "look," gander dates from the German (Nazi) occupation of France during World War II. Vichy headquarters in many towns were kept strictly off limits to the locals, for fear that a casual "passerby" might relay overheard Nazi  plans to the Resistance. But wandering livestock, especially in the smaller villages, could hardly be so easily curtailed, and Free French sympathizers took advantage of this fact to create a unique espionage system. Taping the recently-invented miniature tape recorders under the wings of a duck or gander, they would send the animal in the direction of the town hall, and when it returned, send the taped information on to the Resistance. The practice was not discovered until the summer of 1943, when over-confident Resistance fighters taped small cameras to the birds' beaks to obtain visual information. The Gestapo hanged the perpetrators and the geese,  and invented the phrase werfen einen Ganserichblick auf, or throw a gander's look at," to describe any illegal observation. After the liberation of southern France, this was translated and shortened by Allied soldiers to the current English expression.