Closed Captioned for the Hearing Impaired

We (as in my kids and I) used to take great delight in the fact that my parents would watch PBS with the closed captioning turned on because they "can't understand all that British talk".  As the years went by, the closed captioning began to be on more often until it was just on all the time.  Not due to British  but due to lack of hearing.  Well, my time has come.  I use closed captioning quite a bit.  More than I care to admit.  And I'm not talking only for bonnet movies on PBS.  I just can't hear most of the dialogue anymore. 

This came in handy the other night to verify a line we heard while watching the John Wayne version of True Grit.  Robert Duvall's character, Ned Pepper, is holding a gun to Mattie Ross and yells, "I never busted a cap on a woman or anybody much under sixteen!"   Marty and I looked at each other and said...WHAT?...he just said bust a cap.  Now that's funny. 

I wondered...actually we both wondered about the origin of that phrase.  We thought it was a recent term from "gansta" culture.  Yes, I just said gansta...but besides that...I figured it made that phrase at least as old as the movie or book.   After doing a Google search on this, I find out a lot of people wondered the same thing after seeing that movie.  I suppose if you think about it you can figure it out for yourself...it refers to the old time firing of a gun which required a percussion cap to make the gun shoot.  I bet when the movie first came out, no one even paid any attention to that phrase.  Anyway, just wanted to share this with you because I thought it was pretty funny to hear (and read) a western cowboy outlaw say bust a cap just like a modern day gang member. 

I love Google...it really helps with the wondering.  Did I say that before?   Probably.  I feel like I am repeating stuff but...did I mention I love Google?  You can find an answer for any question.  It's up to you whether you believe it or not. 

Speaking of Robert Duvall...did you know his first movie role was Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.  "You can pet him, Mr. Arthur, he's asleep." 

And with that, I say, I should be asleep, too. Now I just hope I don't dream that Boo Radley is petting my head.