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Topic: Brenneman and "Za"

Topic: Brenneman and "Za"

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bobcatsquared
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Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 2:35:05 PM

Not sure where to post this, so I'll just put it here and let the mullahs move it if they deem it necessary.

I heard Ohio University's own Thom Brenneman, during the Reds telecast last night, use the word "Za" when speaking of a ticket deal for a Reds game where $48 gets 4 tickets and a voucher for a LaRosa pizza. It made me wonder if this is a pizza term he picked up while he was a college student in Athens. I don't think I've ever heard this except when I was a student hanging out with SBH, cc cat and others or the rare occassions these days when we get together. In fact, three of us got together a week ago in Cleveland and considered getting a "Za" before the Bruce Springsteen concert. We even had hand signals for "Za" dating back to when we were freshmen in Reed Hall - signals that SBH has taught my 5-year-old son to use to indicate he is hungry for pizza.

Any thoughts on the origin of this term?

Last Edited: 4/26/2012 2:35:26 PM by bobcatsquared

Tyler
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 2:41:31 PM

Don't know where it started, but I definitely heard it before coming to Athens. I know it was on a Family Guy episode once, but it didn't originate there.

Judging from the fact that it's on the Wiki page for ZA and has rather extensive list of definitions (some contain NWS language) on Urban Dictionary, I don't think it's unique to Athens. Still have no idea where or when it started

OUBob
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 2:42:57 PM

Heard it on "Family Guy" a few yrs back.

I thought Thom used it in reference to what cowboy had made a large version of "gone" the previous night.

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anorris
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 2:52:25 PM

I became familiar with za as a popular two-letter word (and easy-to-play Z word late in a game) to play in Scrabble.

OUcats82
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 3:29:43 PM

There was a guy who did high school football coverage for the NBC affiliate here in Cincinnati that used it back in the mid to late 90's. The winning team of the "Head to Head" game of the week, as he would say "won a free 'za party-courtesy of Papa John's.

Last Edited: 4/26/2012 3:30:51 PM by OUcats82

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KC Bobcat
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 5:10:25 PM

I was in school the same time Thom was (we even had a class together). I had never heard the term Za until I was in Athens. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean he picked it up there. Just sayin'

mf279801
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 5:40:05 PM

Don't think its unique to Athens. A fairly wide spread shorthand

Pataskala
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/26/2012 8:50:36 PM

OUcats82 wrote:

Wasn't OU alum Ken Broo, was it?

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UpSan Bobcat
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/27/2012 8:06:19 AM

mf279801 wrote:

Don't think its unique to Athens. A fairly wide spread shorthand

Maybe not that wide spread. I never heard of it until just now.

bobcatsquared
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/27/2012 8:19:16 AM

Interesting info.

Actually, the latest LJA states that the term "Za", referencing pizza, has its origin in Reed Hall, East Green, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, circa fall 1979. Some say it was first used by Big Al Seladi.

SBH, former BA poster and named after a former Athens pizza establishment, could back this up if he was still with us.

bobcatsquared
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/27/2012 8:19:53 AM

LJA?

Linguistics Journal of America.

Brian Smith (No, not that one)
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/27/2012 12:38:28 PM

The first time I heard it used was by Michael Scott.

Maybe Thom Brennenman was finding his inner Tom Haverford.

www.youtube.com/watch

OUcats82
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/27/2012 4:10:50 PM

Pataskala wrote:

OUcats82 wrote:

Wasn't OU alum Ken Broo, was it?

Sadly was not. I think Broo was in a different market at the time. He is on NBC 5 now though and gives frequent props to the Bobcats. He does the same on his program on AM 700 WLW.

Randi Rico, a former Bobcat Softball player, is also the channel's morning weather personality.

Ohio-The State University

Mike Coleman
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/27/2012 4:48:23 PM

OUcats82 wrote:

Pataskala wrote:

OUcats82 wrote:

Wasn't OU alum Ken Broo, was it?

Was it George Vogel? I was at WLWT as an intern when Vogel, Brennaman and Broo were there. Great times.

OUcats82
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/27/2012 11:55:08 PM

It was a guy named Matt Miller who did work opposite George Vogel. Miller came and went in about 2 years and Vogel is an long-term member of the team at 5.

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Monroe Slavin
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/28/2012 1:10:35 PM

Actually, pizza itself was invented in Athens.

The internet was invented in Nelsonville.

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OhioCatFan
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/28/2012 4:52:10 PM

Monroe Slavin wrote:

Actually, pizza itself was invented in Athens.

Is that why the famous DJ Dick Biondi, WLS in Chicago circa 1960s, used to refer to Ohio University as "American Pizza University"? This was a station listened to by teeny-boppers throughout the Midwest. He took request calls from all over his listening audience area. When someone would call and say they were from Athens, Ohio, he'd say, "Oh, the home of American Pizza University." He would then sometimes say that Athens had more pizza places per capita than any other place in the nation. Where he got that I do not know. I think he just made it up.

Monroe Slavin wrote:

The internet was invented in Nelsonville.

I didn't know that Al Gore was in Nelsonville at that time!

Last Edited: 4/28/2012 4:53:03 PM by OhioCatFan

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74 Cat
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RE: Brenneman and "Za"

Posted: 4/29/2012 8:03:44 AM

Dick Biondi with "The Pizza Song" aka "On Top of a Pizza" from WLS in Chicago turned meatballs into hash regularly.

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