popular where you live, mg...

Actually I think dxb has the answer - coz I converse/write a lot with/to Britspeakers, so that's prolly where I heard it. Made sense to me in a way that "he talks the talk and walks the walk" doesn't.....To me, the former phrase means what dxb sez (and what I said in the original post), and the latter phrase is just confusing: he talks what talk? he walks what walk?

[/desperate attempt to clarify my own stance] (just as well - I didn't do a very good job of it, did I!)