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#13429 01/09/2001 2:52 PM
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i guess it okay if he is a commoner-- but if he were a peer-- he be noble and it would a case of a No-bal badcock!


#13430 01/09/2001 4:35 PM
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In reply to:

that Poe boy


This brings to mind 2 traditional stories.
1. In Baltimore, my fair city, the house where E.A. Poe lived for a time with his young wife/cousin and her mother is still standing and has been a sort of museum for many years. Sometime in the 1920s, a tourist, unable to find Amity Street (the location), asked a young man on the street for directions to the Poe house. Of course, he was directed to the nearest charity hospital.
2. About the same era, a tourist in Vienna looking for Sigmund Freud's house, and thinking he spoke German well, asked directions to "das Freudehaus" and was directed to the nearest house of joy.


#13431 01/09/2001 5:47 PM
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Our Balmerian notes, re Poe's wife: her mother is still standing

She is?


#13432 01/10/2001 4:14 AM
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Quoth Bobyoungbalt:
2. About the same era, a tourist in Vienna looking for Sigmund Freud's house, and thinking he spoke German well, asked
directions to "das Freudehaus" and was directed to the nearest house of joy.
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Do you suppose they used the aforementioned Dutch Glans soap there? Do you think that Freud's name was the least bit eponymous?

That reminds me of Romeo's famous line, "What's in a name? A nose by any other name would smell a sweet." Then he went and killed himself. Go figure. Maybe he didn't have any of that Dutch soap, and Julie got a whiff of him...


#13433 01/10/2001 4:23 AM
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of troy wrote:
i guess it okay if he is a commoner-- but if he were a peer-- he be noble and it would a case of a No-bal badcock!
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Did you hear about the pompous MP who considered The Bard to be a bawd? After a garrulous denouncement of Shakespearian innuendo (a word that he mistook for the Italian term for buggary) the tabloid headlines read, "William Shakes Peer."


#13434 01/15/2001 4:35 PM
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What about "button" or "zip" your lips.
And when our circulation has been cut-off to a limb we say that particular body part is "asleep".

"Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"

#13435 01/15/2001 9:19 PM
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There's also "Lend me your ears."


#13436 01/15/2001 10:25 PM
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Je vous bienviens, français31415. Je suis trés intéressée
dans votre nom! Il faut que vous parleraz á belMarduk--
j'ai oublié trop, le parler, vraiment.


#13437 01/16/2001 9:08 PM
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What about "hold on to your noses", meaning we're about to get in over our heads. Hey! that's two.


#13438 01/16/2001 10:06 PM
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Bonjour Jackie!

J'étais très heureuse de voir votre message! Je suis americaine, mais j'apprends le français depuis 3 ou 4 ans. Et vous, êtes-vous americain(e), ou français(e), ou canadien(ne), ou quoi?


#13439 01/16/2001 10:31 PM
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Notre chère Jackie est kentuckienne


#13440 01/17/2001 5:42 PM
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LOL!
I saw that on her bio after I posted the message, but I figured she could be a French person who moved to Kentucky.


#13441 01/17/2001 5:57 PM
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francais31415 - is that like beverleyhills91210?



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#13442 01/17/2001 9:07 PM
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francais31415 - is that like beverleyhills91210?

I would guess that the 31415 signifies pi.


#13443 01/17/2001 9:57 PM
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JazzO replied: I would guess that the 31415 signifies pi.

Yep, but I wasn't necessarily looking for a sensible answer, since it wasn't a sensible question in the first place ...



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#13444 01/17/2001 10:11 PM
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WOW! Very good, jazzoctopus, it is pi!


#13445 01/17/2001 10:27 PM
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Throw in some fabric reference, and you're French silk pi.


#13446 01/17/2001 11:52 PM
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Actually, my family and I thought of that, too! Let's see...francais-3.1415-du-soie (literally "French pi of silk").


#13447 01/18/2001 3:17 PM
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Pi
or if she's a French pi, does that mean her real name is Paté, as in Paté Page ?

This reminds me of the old joke about the not-too-bright boy who was in math class and heard that the area of a circle is pi-R-squared. He scratched his head and remarked, "That can't be right. Pi are not square; pi are round."


#13448 01/18/2001 9:53 PM
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And if you eat too many of them, your circumference and area increase!


#13449 01/19/2001 8:02 AM
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And if you eat too many of them, your circumference and area increase!

..which brings up right back to body parts

I can't believe no-one has mentioned stiff upper lips yet. Or giving someone lip.


#13450 01/19/2001 8:12 AM
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>I can't believe no-one has mentioned stiff upper lips yet. Or giving someone lip.

Now, don't get lippy with me Bridget!


#13451 01/19/2001 10:54 AM
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My father used to promise me a thick lip if ever I put his nose out of joint. And when I piled my plate high it was a commonplace for the familyto introduce me as the boy whose eyes were bigger than his stomach.


#13452 01/19/2001 4:00 PM
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and if your father had to lecture you on your misbehavior, he would give you an earful and you might get a snootful for having a bellyful.


#13453 01/19/2001 4:17 PM
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I love the expression "don't give me GBH of the ear'ole", one of my favourite lines from TV. Jo and co. will, I'm sure remember The Sweeney, and they were always telling people this. (For our benighted across-the-ponders, "GBH" is British legal slang for "gross bodily harm".)

The Sweeney was Lunnon slang, and maybe still is, for the Flying Squad, a fast-response police unit. I'm told that The Sweeney is Cockney rhyming slang for "Sweeny Todd" -> plod -> policeman, but that could be wrong.





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#13454 01/19/2001 5:32 PM
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"GBH" is British legal slang for "gross bodily harm".)

It's actually Grievous Bodily Harm.

And The Sweeney = Sweeney Todd = Flying Squad


#13455 01/19/2001 9:12 PM
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Maverick says: "GBH" is British legal slang for "gross bodily harm".)

It's actually Grievous Bodily Harm.

And The Sweeney = Sweeney Todd = Flying Squad


And he's right, of course. I was very tired last night.



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#13456 01/23/2001 9:27 PM
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Has anyone mentioned having a "heart-to-heart" or going "head to head"?


#13457 01/25/2001 9:04 PM
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Has anyone mentioned having a "heart-to-heart" or going "head to head"?

Whereas the French 'tête à tête' is closer to 'heart to heart' than 'head to head'. Hardly surprising people have trouble with foreign languages.




#13458 01/25/2001 11:40 PM
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I'm impressed that so far no one has been tempted to be vulgar. Let's see how long it takes for someone to elucidate phrase I heard in Michigan, that a gossip had been "hung up by the tongue."


#13459 01/26/2001 12:51 AM
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so far no one has been tempted to be vulgar.

Well, probably more than one person has, but so far here
we have managed to pretty much avoid being crass. I would
strongly prefer to keep it that way. Besides, subtle
allusions are so much for fun!


#13460 01/26/2001 9:15 AM
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In reply to:

Whereas the French 'tête à tête' is closer to 'heart to heart' than 'head to head'. Hardly surprising people have trouble with foreign languages.


While the Indonesian keras kepala means stubborn rather than the literal hard-headed.

Bingley



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#13461 01/26/2001 1:42 PM
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do you also have a term for hard hearted?

In my family, when we spoke of a hard hearted person, we would say, "so cold, butter wouldn't melt in their mouth!"


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How about "cold as a witch's teat?"
wow


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"so cold, butter wouldn't melt in their mouth!"

That's interesting Helen; I think I've only heard that in a context meaning 'so innocent that even the natural laws are suspended!' Any other takes on that one?


#13464 01/26/2001 3:55 PM
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<Has anyone mentioned having a "heart-to-heart" or going "head to head"?>

Eureka! You've found a new seam!
Going at it toe-to-toe, seeing eye-to-eye, fighting hand-to-hand (mano a mano?) or nose-to-nose, marching shoulder-to-shoulder, having back-to-back hits, dancing cheek-to-cheek.
Any more?


#13465 01/26/2001 4:12 PM
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bossum buddies!


#13466 01/26/2001 5:16 PM
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Now that's funny, my parents used to use the phrase "so sweet butter wouldn't melt in her mouth" - usually facetiously. (I'm not sure about the spelling there...)


#13467 01/26/2001 5:18 PM
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hand-in-hand, hand-in-glove


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Cold ...
as a landlord's heart. (my mother's usage)

as a stepmother's kiss. (my father's)


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