This delight came right on the heels of posting my first delight.

I wrote up a short little description on my Instagram and Facebook before posting a link to my blog and included in that blurb was the phrase: “Take a gander.”

I typed that out. Erased it. Typed it out again.

It’s a little old-fashioned. Somehow I always picture a middle-age, round-bellied man with a cowboy hat, settling his hands on his waist. Maybe he’s got on one of those thick leather belts with a huge silver buckle resting on it. He’s shaking his head at a broken down truck, looking grim but ultimately confident that he can fix the problem. A slow, southern drawl declares, “Whelp, can’t guarantee anythin’, but I’ll take a gander at it.”

Could I get any more Texan in my imagination?

Anyway, that’s somehow always the image that comes to my mind when I hear that phrase. And I, never wanting to own up to my Texas roots, found myself not wanting to use the phrase. (I’ve never been the loud and proud Texan – I’m sorry to all my native Texans, you can disown me if you want). But, since it’s a fun phrase and I’m a curious sort and have Google at my fingertips, I thought, “I’m going to look this up before I post.”

Apparently it’s from 1880’s England. “Gander” refers to a male goose and this idiom came into use because the image of a long-necked goose craning its neck around to look at something well-suited the human tendency to stop and gawk at any sort of misfortune or strange happenstance. (I’ll be a good librarian and cite my source; I got this from the Grammarist).

Probably the term “rubbernecking” had similar origins.

Curiousity satisfied, I decided to leave the phrase in. So there you have it. A nerdy delight, but a delight nonetheless.