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Looking at the translation and adaptation of children's books, we found this in one of Lucy M Montgomery's Anne books from the early twentieth c.:
"Confound Corcoran! If he couldn't put his meaning into less dangerous phrases he'd get into trouble some of these long-come-shorts."
I've never seen this word "long-come-shorts", and have not been able to find it in my dictionaries. I can understand the meaning being something like "one of these days", but is it a standalone word, or do you only find it in the expression "some of these long-come-shorts"? Is there a singular form? Where does it come from, and how did it get that shape?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Marianna, I have never heard this phrase before in my life...[waiting for tsumn or tsumbody....]
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Carpal Tunnel
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That sounds like something Whiskers-on-the-moon would say, but I don't remember for sure. What about this, Marianna? Could your quote be a rephrasing of this, maybe?
the long and short of it(n) :the brief result or end of a matter; upshot. _The long and short of it was that they've moved to Japan. This is from: http://www.geocities.com/informalenglish/L.htmlI want to list where I found that, but first, a warning: to all those who are prone to dictionary-browsing--don't go here if you need to get off your computer soon. One of the more unusual listings is: English, as She is Spoke at McMurdo - a guide to slang and jargon of the Antarctic. http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/links.htm
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Pooh-Bah
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I think there may be an ellipsis and a missing comma rendering the whole thing a funny vernacular:
"he'd get into trouble for some of these, long-come-shorts,"
that is, "he'd get into trouble some of these when long comes to short" or "one of these days".
Out of curiosity, do they give any examples of the "dangerous" sentences?
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Carpal Tunnel
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cons> I have never heard this phrase before in my life... [waiting...]
connie, if you're waiting for affirmation, you have it from me!
92 ghits, almost all stemming directly from Avonlea; interestingly, long-come-short gets 79 ghits mostly from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus.
"'Heyo, Brer Tarrypin, whar you bin dis long-come-short?' sez Brer Fox, sezee.
"'Lounjun 'roun', Brer Fox, lounjun 'roun',' sez Brer Tarrypin.
"'You don't look sprucy like you did, Brer Tarrypin,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.
"'Lounjun 'roun' en suffer'n', sez Brer Tarrypin, sezee.
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At first I took it for a folk-spelling of Lancôme.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Many thanks, everybody. I gather from your information that it is some form of dialectal expression (perhaps just Canadian?), and tsuwm provides an example in the singular, which is interesting. Jackie, who on earth is Whiskers-on-the-Moon? [goggly-eyicon] Inselpeter, the speaker is referring generally to Corcoran's way of not beating around the bush and speaking plainly even when he's negotiating something shady. In this case, they've been unmistakeably overheard while Corcoran was offering the speaker money in exchange for his vote, and the speaker accepted it. 
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Pooh-Bah
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Still, if the hits are mostly Uncle Remus, I bet it's an invented vernacular, and I ain't-a-budgin'. But, "that's the way things go in this life, Bra'er Fox, somes goes up an' somes goes down."
;-)
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> if the hits are mostly Uncle Remus
tsuwm said: > 92 ghits, almost all stemming directly from Avonlea; interestingly, long-come-short gets 79 ghits mostly from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus.
plural be avonlea, singular be uncle remus.
formerly known as etaoin...
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stranger
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I'm not familiar with Montgomery, but I was a teenager before I realized tarbaby was supposed to be perjorative. Does Anne take place in a rural community?
Harvest time is the both the busiest part of the year, and the most financially important - and in one of those cosmic jokes on farmers, it arrives as daylight starts to be severely constricted.
To misquote Macdonald Carey, "As sands through an hourglass, these are the long-come-shorts of our lives."
-----
Words fail me
(Turnabout is fair play.)
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Words fail me. (Turnabout is fair play.)
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Pooh-Bah
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>> plural be avonlea, singular be uncle remus.<<
Kal V'Khomer
So there.
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> Kal V'Khomer
I'm not sure what the hillel you're on about...
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This section recounts the immediate aftermath of the horses’ escaping into the countryside. Henry Armstid is discovered amidst the trash in the feed lot with his leg broken. He is carried to Mrs. Littlejohn’s, who sends for Will Varner, a veterinarian who also practices medicine on people. Mrs. Littlejohn maintains that “a man ain’t so different from a mule, come long come short. Except maybe a mule’s got more sense.”
- William Faulkner
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who on earth is Whiskers-on-the-Moon? He's a resident of the area Anne lives in in the later books. Can't think of the name of the town, but by then Anne has married Gilbert and they buy a house she names Ingleside. The character is so named (sub rosa; he has a "real" name that is used to his face) because he has a full, bushy beard and a bald head. I found these later books less enjoyable than the first two, because they spend far too much time talking about local characters, in my opinion. I think Ms. Montgomery felt herself to be under some pressure to come up with more tales. The final one focuses on Anne's youngest dau., though, and so to me it's better.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Kal V’Khomer ("the light and the heavy"):
...to make an argument from a lesser weight based on one of the heavier or greater weight. The philosophers called this a fortiori (Latin for "with even greater strength"). Example: If X is true of Y then HOW MUCH MORE X must be true of Z (Z being greater weight than Y)...
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Carpal Tunnel
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but what about Val Kilmer?
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Pooh-Bah
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>>a fortiori<<
I could not for the life of me remember that term. Thanks.
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