Johnny on the Spot

After commenting to my wife this morning that I was "johnny on the spot" when someone needed me, she wondered where that odd phrase came from. I continued my on-the-spotness by instantly consulting the fabulous Internets to provide my loved one with the gift of knowledge.

Not only is Johnny On the Spot "New Jersey's Finest Portable Restroom Service!" it's also a phrase that first made it into print around 1896. According to Michael Quinion at WorldWideWords.org the specific origin of the word is unclear, but a columnist in the New York Sun described the then new, hip phrase this way in April of that year. I must say, it made me chuckle. It helps to read it aloud in a British accent. Why don't we talk this way any more?

“A ‘Johnny on the spot’ is a man or youth who may be relied upon to be at a certain stated place when wanted and on whose assured appearance confident expectation may be based. It is not sufficient that an alert and trustworthy individual, to be thought deserving of the name ‘Johnny on the spot,’ should restrict his beneficent activity to the matter of being at a certain place when needed. He must, in addition, render such service and attend to such business when there as the occasion may require, and such a ‘Johnny’ must be on the spot not merely to attend to the business of others, but also to look after his own. Hence an individual who is prompt and farseeing, alive to his own interests and keenly sensible of means for promoting his own advantage is a ‘Johnny on the spot.’ ”