Grimmigirl here. I'm Minion Fogarty. This week I have two somewhat Irish themed segments

for you. A quick and dirty tip about patty versus patty. And a meaty middle about where

people say their car needs washed instead of needs to be washed.

First, St. Patrick's Day is next week and March 17th is the day we celebrate the patron

saint of Ireland, who lived around 400 AD and is said to have driven the snakes out of

Ireland, which probably meant bad people rather than actual reptiles.

March 17th is supposedly the day St. Patrick died, so we're celebrating his death, which

seems a little grim to me, but I've rarely met a grim person on St. Patrick's Day.

Each year, millions of people who aren't Irish annoy the Irish by referring to St. Patrick

's Day as St. Patty's Day. Patty with tees is a woman's nickname, short for Patricia, not

short for Patrick. For the record, the correct short form is St. Patty's Day with Dees,

which comes from the Irish form of the name Padreg. And that's your quick and dirty tip.

If you want to abbreviate St. Patrick's Day, it's St. Patty's Day. Patty with Dees, not

Patty with tees. And now we're going to talk about regionalisms. Mostly about the

needs washed quirk of Pittsburgh ease, but I may throw in some other fun ones at the

end. Whenever I give radio interviews, especially when the station is in the Midwest, collars

almost always ask questions like this one from Douglas. He said, the other day I heard

a coworker say, my car needs washed. I think she should have said, my car needs to be washed

or I need to get my car washed or perhaps even my car needs washing. What do you think?

I think Douglas's coworker almost certainly grew up in a place linguists call the North

Midland region or perhaps her parents are from that region. Pittsburgh is the epicenter

of needs washed kind of sentences, but they're also very common throughout Pennsylvania

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