I love Pledge Drive, don't you? I listen more, smile more. I get to hear familiar voices out of context. Dogs bark, phones ring, new members join and there's an energy, even a certain edginess, in the air.

Sure, we'll play that BBC segment, those Words on Books, that Celtic-sounding song, but first please call in and pledge so we can be here for you tomorrow, and the days after that.

It's an old song, and you already know the words. Do you know the number? It's (707) 895-2233.

And now we return to Words on Books... I've heard a great number of cliches on this station this week. That's not necessarily a bad thing. A truism is called a truism because it's true, and a phrase becomes cliched because people turn to it so often to explain things.

I've been browsing the newly published second edition of the Facts on File Dictionary of Cliches, Meanings & Origins of Thousands of Terms and Expressions.

Here's a cliche I've heard on this station several times this week: "Step up to the plate."

That's an easy one for this dictionary to hit out of the ball park. Of course "step up to the plate" comes from baseball -- step up to home plate and hit the ball, make the pledge, do the deed, that sort of thing.

"Step up to the plate" apparently does not mean "eat a bunch of fatty food at the breakfast buffet" but it could.

I've also heard "Put your money where your ears are." This cliche is a witty KZYX&Z variant on the more scholarly-sounding "Put one's money where one's mouth is." In 1975 "the British government used it as an advertising slogan to persuade people to invest their savings in the National Savings Bank Accounts Department. See also PUT UP OR SHUT UP."

The meaning is "Back up your stated position with action." If you are a listener, become a member. If you are a member, send us a bit of extra dough (there's another cliche for you). Call us now at 895-2233.

I've also heard new cliches this week. "Less than a cup of coffee" is a good one. This is defined as joining this station for an ongoing pledge of $10 a month charged to your favorite credit card. This will cost you maybe 33 cents a day, MUCH less than a cup of coffee. You can have your coffee and your station, too, and that's another cliche variant.

By pledging now you can "have it both ways" as people said as early as the 16th century. This fund raising phrase first appeared in John Heywood's collection of proverbs published in 1546, as "You cannot eat your cake and have your cake."

But you can do that. You can eat your cake, have your cake, cake walk over to your phone, and while choking on your piece of cake give us a piece of that cake in the form of a pledge of support: 895-2233. Then you can finish your cake feeling good about yourself and good about the future of the station, at least until the NEXT pledge drive, when you can do it all again, thank you, cake and all.

To sum up, with the help of the Facts on File Dictionary of Cliches:

"Mark my words, I wouldn't give you a bum steer, if push comes to shove, and it will, enough said, let her rip, lend one's ear to the station and you can be the power behind the throne, shape up (by supporting us) or ship out, settle your hash and other things being equal make hay while the sun shines."

"You'll make out like a bandit if you join the hue and cry, follow in the footsteps and get down to the nuts and bolts along the primrose path to the promised land."

"The price is right, so prick up your ears, prime the pump and join the precious few who know the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the shoe fits so wear it, and the mountain will not come to Mohammed."

No, "the mountain will not come to Mohammed," so you and every other Mohammed must go to the mountain, "in a heartbeat, in a nutshell, in a dither, if truth be told, if not now when, no ifs ands or butts," just call.

Call now, please: 895-2233 and thank you. We "can't complain, it's going to pan out, you are the staff of life, the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, the station's friend through thick and thin, our nearest and dearest, here today but definitely not gone tomorrow, and by the way, you've made our day, and thank you so much for helping us make ends meet."

Aired Sunday April 2, 2006 at 10:55 am and Monday April 3, 2006 at 8:40 am

Orders/Information:

Facts on File Dictionary of Cliches, 2nd edition edited by Christine Ammer. Checkmark Books paperback $19.95. ISBN 0816062803.

For those who would like to donate to KZYX&Z, there's an 800 number for you: 1 (800) 298-1296.

And you can join online: https://kzyx.securepacific.net/pages/join_now.html