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"The guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house... if I was trying to jigger into..."

I've already written about what Obama said about racism, Skip Gates, and the "stupidity" of the police. You can find the context of the issue there, including the whole text of Obama's remarks. This post is solely about the words "jimmied" and "jigger," which appear like this:

What's been reported though is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house. There was a report called in to the police station that there might be a burglary taking place. So far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into -- well, I guess this is my house now, so...(LAUGHTER)... it probably wouldn't happen. But let's say my old house in Chicago. (LAUGHTER)

Here, I'd get shot. (LAUGHTER)

(Okay, one additional issue: What blithe disrespect for the Secret Service to say he'd get shot! Okay, one more: The President should not make jokes about getting shot.)

Now, jimmy is the right word for what Obama was talking about. Dictionary definition:

to force open with or as if with a jimmy

"Jimmied the door" would be more precise than "jimmied his way," but "jimmy" is the j-word for the job.

Here's the dictionary on "jigger" (used as a verb):

intransitive verb
: to jerk up and down

transitive verb
: to alter or rearrange especially by manipulating <jigger an election district>

Obama's use of the word is a little off. I think "jigger into" is unidiomatic in a way that makes it hard to figure out if it's supposed to have the transitive or the intransitive meaning. But maybe he's picturing jerking up and down or manipulating. Whatever. It's not particularly wrong, but it's interesting that he shifted from "jimmy" to "jigger." If a white person made that shift in the context of this story, people might suspect racism (because of the word it rhymes with).

But I don't think he was drawn to the word "jigger." I think he was trying to get away from the word "jimmy."

Whatever you do, don't make them think of Jimmy!

Yikes! Who's that staring at him from the portrait in the hallway?

Full post as published by Althouse on July 23, 2009 (boomark / email).