Colloquialisms [promises to be Unutterably Silly]

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I'm only wearing my modesty.

So sayeth the bishop to the actress ...

[vivaldirules]

My admiration for you can be taken for granite.

[Cthulhu]

@ Steve:

"Dead as a doornail" is the correct colloquialigism. Carpenters used to band the tail of nails over to make sure it could not be removed, hence it was 'dead.'

Most of my favourite colourful idioms 1. Arise from my time in Russia, or 2.are patently dirty (c.f. I'm a sailor)

"No one eats the first pancake"
"Don't string noodles on my ears"
"Don't powder my brain"

"I'm not performing intercourse on this feline, I am merely securing its cranium"
"Let's walk down the hill & perform intercourse on all the female bovine rather than running down and doing so to only one"

The only one suitable for Saturday mornings comes from the under-rated Sci-Fi series Space: Above & Beyond.

"Easier than eating pancakes"

However, it has been my experience that devouring souls is pretty darn simplistic too, but not as many people have that frame of reference.

[Taylor514ce]

The dread horror returns!! You're going to have a busy, busy day.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

My admiration for you can be taken for granite.

That's a bit hard ...

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

"Dead as a doornail" is the correct colloquialigism. Carpenters used to band the tail of nails over to make sure it could not be removed, hence it was 'dead.'

I like your explanation better than this one from The Dictionary of Cliches:

"...And what is a doornail? Well, that can be answered: it was a nail with a large head [why do all things remind me of PH?], and at one time it was common practice to stud a door with them for decoration or reinforcement. The popularity of the phrase is probably attributable to alliteration. In any event, the expression goes back at least to 1350 in The Romance of William of Palerne: 'For but ich haue bote of mi bale I am ded as a dorenail.' "

And welcome back, oh, Great Juan.

[RWood]

That's a tough road to hoe Steve. I gave it a good college try but missed it by a whisker. I'll tell you who read your books to me if you'll tell me who wrote them for you. Since a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse I just took all the marbles and went home. Tomorrow's another day and after that will come another so we can all cry over spilt milk again. A good turn of the phrase but not of the screw or shrew.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Most of my favourite colourful idioms 1. Arise from my time in Russia, or 2.are patently dirty (c.f. I'm a sailor)

Don't trust Russian translations. 'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak' was once famously rendered as 'The vodka is strong but the meat is rotten.'

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Don't trust Russian translations. 'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak' was once famously rendered as 'The vodka is strong but the meat is rotten.'

ROFL! I think I ate there recently.

[Cthulhu]

@ Patricia:

The one about powdering a person's brain.....mmm....brains...

Sorry.

That one was told me to by some Russian kids while I was in Samara; when I used it once to a friend, they were a bit shocked. Guess that it is a little more forceful and insulting than they originally lead me to believe.

The 1st pancake--every good Russkie knows that one.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

ROFL! I think I ate there recently.

Billions and billions served ...

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by RWood

Billions and billions served ...

A third of which are firsts...

[astra]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Don't trust Russian translations. 'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak' was once famously rendered as 'The vodka is strong but the meat is rotten.'

When my wife was teaching Russian language in the UK, that was one of the good examples of bad translation she taught them.

[GeoffC]

Food - who mentioned food ...

The feast ended with a dish of raw animalcula in a wicker cage. A cheese had been surrounded with little twigs and strings; then a hole made in it and a little sour wine poured in. This speedily bred a small but numerous vermin. When the cheese was so rotten with them that only the twigs and string kept it from tumbling to pieces and walking off quadrivious, it came to table. By a malicious caprice of fate cage and menagerie were put down right under the Dutchman's organ of self-torture. He recoiled with a loud ejaculation, and hung to the bench by the calves of his legs. "What is the matter?" said a traveller disdainfully. "Does the good cheese scare ye? Then put it hither, in the name of all the saints!" "Cheese!" cried Gerard, "I see none. These nauseous reptiles have made away with every bit of it." "Well," replied another, "it is not gone far. By eating of the mites we eat the cheese to boot." "Nay, not so," said Gerard. "These reptiles are made like us, and digest their food and turn it to foul flesh even as we do ours to sweet: as well might you think to chew grass by eating of grass-fed beeves, as to eat cheese by swallowing these uncleanly insects."

It's enough to put you off your squid pie ..

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Boy, I'm glad I ate lunch first...