I closed my last entry about the real life Simpsons intro with the expression "cowabunga!". After I posted it, I realized that Bart almost never says that anymore. In fact, I don't think I've heard the term since the early 90s.
This got me looking for the origin of the term which naturally led me to visit Wikipedia. That's where I found this handy page about cowabunga, "used as an expression of exhilaration when riding the waves".
Cowabunga! was first used on "Howdy Doody" and was adopted by surfers who grew up watching the show. In my time, the expression was used by Cookie Monster, Snoopy, Michaelangelo from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and, of course, Bart Simpson.
No wonder I get the warm fuzzies from the expression cowabunga. No wonder I always visit Wikipedia first.
