Patience, puppy, patience

If there is one thing my darling puppy lacks, it's patience.  When he gets excited to come in, go out, or want food (especially) he will wind himself up, like we all used to do with old fashioned wristwatches.

This morning I was warming myself a cup of coffee in my microwave, and Zorro in true fashion, was winding himself round and around my legs.  He wanted his teeth cleaning treat.

I asked him, "Heavens to Betsy, can't you be patient for just one minute?"  Of course he couldn't, but I made him wait anyway.  Dance the dance he did, all the while.  He really cracks me up!

Eventually my coffee warmed, and Zorro got his treat.  Then, I got to thinking about the phrase, Heavens to Betsy.  Does anybody even use that expression anymore?  I know I haven't for a long, long time.  

Hmmm?  And, here I go again.

Okay, this one actually stumped me.  Finding the origin for the phrase "heavens to Betsy" has pretty much left me clueless.  What a bummer. 

Was there a real Betsy?  No one knows for sure.  Some like to think the phrase relates to Betsy Ross, the woman who sewed together the first American flag. And that someone may have said something like...."heaven bless dear Betsy for her labors."  Great possibility I suppose.  

Then I read that the English Oxford Dictionary had made citation to this phrase in 1914, 

“The night, as I have before mentioned, is dark, and they do not observe a new Manilla clothes line stretched tightly across the lawn, until Bob, who has his head raised to watch the second story windows, is, as he approaches obliquely, sawed smartly across the neck.  “Heavens to Betsy!” he exclaims, clapping his hand to his throat, “I’ve cut my head off!”

Serenade, by Frederick W Saunders, a short story in Ballou’s Dollar Monthly Magazine, Boston, May 1857

But what surprised me was that I actually found reference to this phrase in (of all places) the Urban Dictionary where I found the following:

Heavens to Betsy
An expression of shock.
Heavens to Betsy! I forgot to turn off the iron.
by buggum September 18, 2005

and,

when you are frustrated with something and you cry out 
"HEAVENS TO BETSY"
"Heavens to Betsy" I got ready for nothing 

They're taking way to long for some fries..."Heavens to Betsy"
by austin42g April 14, 2009

Who knew, although I am pleased to see I'm not the only one who occasionally utters this phrase.

However, when all was said and done, and after a couple of hours of Internet search, it think I have to go along with etymologist Charles Earle Funk who published "Heavens to Betsy! and other curious sayings"  in 1955, who ventured the opinion that the origins of 'Heavens to Betsy' were "completely unsolvable".