I love that saying. I use it occasionally at work and it always get's a chuckle and makes a point. Too bad that for a while it will be politically charged (though I admit I don't understand why).
I'm not trying to make a political point, but am wondering whether there are other funny phrases like "lipstick on a pig" that you use.
15 comments:
Another linguistic post. Yay!
I tend to get caught up in certain words rather than phrases. The people who tend to pick it up from me are the babysitters we use. So they often point out what they have "learned" from me. I went through "totally" and "random" and "issue." I have been told recently that I am overusing "perfectly." As in, "that's perfectly fine" or "that looks perfectly cute."
I am not comfortable with the periods within the quotes, but I know that's where they are supposed to be, so I'll leave them. But I don't like it.
I would also like to officially state that I made up the word "ginormous" over a year before I saw it in print anywhere else.
I love language. I love how it works, how it changes, how people learn and use it.
Someone recently told me that they were "busier than a one-armed paper hanger."
I'd never heard it before, but everyone else around seemed to have. Maybe it's more well-known than I thought.
Sometimes when someone has a fake smile, I call them a "cheesy cat." Or when someone's nosy, I call that "rubber necking."
There are so many sayings around here at State Farm, it's silly. Mostly I think people just use extra words because they like to hear themselves talk.
Having a degree in Journalism, I prefer the period inside of the quote marks. I believe the academic style of writing would not do it this way, so, Jan, you may be correct to do it the way you prefer.
Two that I always remember from when I was a kid back home, was my mom saying on a hot summer day, "It is hotter that an well diggers butt!" or when we were little and always jumping around, my day would say, "Sit still, your jumping around like a fart on hot girddle."
You can tell the communications at the Christensen house on Owsley Street was not on a high suffocated level!!!!
The ones that are common and come to my mind quickly are "for crying out loud" and "what in the world". Also "heavens to Betsy". One our family uses is "Hold 'er, Knute!" I always thought that came from an incident involving Uncle Knute Yergler and a horse.
We use "don't purfume the pig" at work a lot. Have you ever been "thrown under the bus?". That's been my favorite lately.
I used to work with someone who always said "It's six of one and a half-dozen of the other". It drove me nuts... just say it doesn't make a difference.
Also interesting is that Sam's family always says "It's COLDER than a well digger's butt". So now I wonder if well digger's butts are cold or hot?!
Shelley's question is proof of the importance of this "pooled nonsense" we call the family blog. Who would've wondered this before the blog started???
It's been a good laugh to end my work day!
I had to laugh out loud at Shelley's comment too. And, yes, I've been thrown under the bus, and have thrown others under as well. I've also "had a big ship to turn." At State Farm, we must always "sing from the same hynmal." We must always soften our tone by beginning our comments with phrases such as, "from my perspective," and "correct me if I'm wrong, but..."
I think maybe Jerry meant "sophisticated" instead of suffocated!
When our kids were little and we went to a restaurant or someplace special, as we got out of the car we always told them to "act like you've been somewhere before!" And they usually behaved very well.
Another thing -- when we were shopping with the kids -- we would usually separate with two kids with me and one with Jerry. When we were ready to go, Jerry would usually whistle at me from a couple aisles away. Or if I saw him first, I would whistle (although I'm not a very good whistler). I don't think that procedure went over very well when one of the boys tried it with his bride!
The latest 2 phrases which are becoming overly prominent are "having said that,.." and "don't go there".
Sometimes when telling another teacher colleague about a student that was "out in left field" and not catching on to the realities of things, I would describe the student as "he hasn't seen the ball since the kickoff". That often got a laugh. Another one was "his wheel is turning fast, but the hamster is dead". If I was really, really frustrated and disgusted, I might have once even said "That kid is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot".
Not too professional but teaching can be frustrating at times. I'm sure Ann, Rhoda, UL and AM, and others can verify that.
Cleve
Retta says well diggers butt's are definetly COLD because the further down the well you go, the colder the ground gets. We know this because at one family dinner, a long discussion was had about it. Retta's mom thought the saying was actually "colder than a wild (slaves) butt" She had even figured out their butt was cold because they had run from the south to the north.
Also, when kids are jumpy they are like a fart in the skillet. Which is better for a fart, a griddle or skillet and how do you know, have you tried it?
At work everyone says "irregardless, we should.....", or "irregardless, I think.....". It drives me nuts as irregardless is not even a real word. Regardless, I almost never correct them more than once. EDK
Then again, Eric -- those coal diggers get pretty sweaty working so hard! I totally agree about the work irregardless.
oops I mean the word "irregardless".
Tag-a-long:
Somehow I totally missed these posts first time around. So I'll add my two bits--
Pet peeve: people who say "needless to say" and then go on to say it.
I'm not anonymous, I'm Mim--must be something wrong with this computer!!
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