Allo all,

This weekend we had a celebration of the Kings / Twelfth Night at which I saw my cousin's baby for the first time. He was sooo cute so I said "yé (sic) cute à mourir." Translation "he is cute to die." Ugh. Yet it is such a common expression that I had never really thought about it before.

Now, I blame all of you ‘cause I started thinking about it, and found a few more expressions that, when really listened to, are really not all that nice.

I love you to pieces.
He is sooo cute I could die.
The baby is so cute I could eat him up. (behave all you gutter snipes, you know what I mean here. I’m sure you’ve heard this before )

Are there any other terms of endearments that really aren’t all that touching when you really think about it?

I leave you on this note as I’m off for a couple of weeks and will seldom be able to check in.

Salut mes amis.

Well, there's the expression that something is so wonderful, that it's "to die for"...

Bel, I just recently remembered an expression my Grandma Kane used to use. When we'd call for her, she'd respond in a singsong voice, "I'll be there in two shakes of a dead lamb's tail!" She was one of the sweetest, most gentle ladies I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, but what a hideous expression when you think about it!

As cute as a bug in a rug.

Built like a brick ----house.

>Are there any other terms of endearments that really aren’t all that touching when you really think about it?

Smother someone with kisses
Drop dead gorgeous
Calling your girlfriend "Baby" (although I do note this expression is more prevalent in pop songs than in real life. Well, my real life anyway.)

I am familiar with "two shakes of a lambs tail" but not the dead lamb variation. Here's a reference to "two shakes .."
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in two shakes of a lamb's tail
- very quickly and without difficulty
"Wait one minute. I will be able to help you in two shakes of a lamb's tail.http://"http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6720/Number.html
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Your grandmother was not alone in her "dead lamb" variant. Here's a reference:
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QUICKER THAN TWO SHAKES OF A DEAD LAMB'S TAIL. Quick.http://www.napanet.net/~garate/Phmstd.htm
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It sounds like you were lucky that she stuck with the dead lambs. The next on the list is:-
ENOUGH TO GAG A MAGGOT OFF A GUT WAGON - yuk!

This could mean almost anything since the lamb isn't likely to get around to shaking its own tail. It's the version I remember my maiden aunt using and I always took it to mean "when I get around to it."

In reply to:

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ENOUGH TO GAG A MAGGOT OFF A GUT WAGON - yuk!
from Jo--

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Does any one here remember the words to the great lunch time song--
Great big gob of greasy, grimey gopher meat,
Mutiltated monkey meat,
.....

.... And me with out a spoon?

I know the english have songs in a similar vein*, but spoken expressions like the one quoted seem to me be to be particulary american.

*I am not thinking of some of the great bawdy ballards, ("I saw a maiden milk a bull, with every pull a bucket full... ) but song like "What a mouth, what a mouth, what an awfull mouth he had!...." about a the guy who fell asleep with his jaw agape, and the coal truck filled it, ...
and the english version of
Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell,
Miss Lucy went to Heaven, the steamboat went to
Hell-o operator, give me number nine..

the only line i remember for the English version went
He fell on pile of...
Shine your button with Brass-o,
Its only tu'pence a tin, You can by it, or nick it from Woolworths

Great green gobs of greasy, grimey gopher guts,
Mutiltated monkey meat,
Porpillated porpoise pus
Great green gobs of greasy, grimey gopher guts,*
And me without a spoon

*This line may have been something else, but I can't remember what off hand. If I wake up tonight at 3 am tomorrow morning you're porpillated porpoise pus, helen.

In reply to:

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Great green gobs of greasy, grimey gopher guts,
Mutiltated monkey meat,
Porpillated porpoise pus
Great green gobs of greasy, grimey gopher guts,*
And me without a spoon

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Oh, that line is definately wrong-- and what is porpillated? M-W 10th skips it...
And isn't it pertrified porpoise pus?

And after i find out exactly what porpillated is-- well discuss whether or not i'll be porpillated-- and who going to porpillate me!

Great green gobs of greasy, grimey gopher guts,
Mutiltated monkey meat,
Porpillated porpoise pus
Great green gobs of greasy, grimey gopher guts,*
And me without a spoon

Except for that* line which I really do think is something else. As for porpillated (not sure of the spelling) that's pretty much it but then this kind of song would be subject to mondegreens and the kiss-this-guy effect.

I don't remember the whole song either, yet, sung to "the old grey mare", porpillated just fits better rhythmically.

We had some wicked lyrics for this I'll save for when I can contact friends who remember!!!

the only line i remember for the English version went
He fell on pile of...
Shine your button with Brass-o,
Its only tu'pence a tin, You can by it, or nick it from Woolworths

This one really brings back memories of my schooldays, when it was a great favourite. The full version, as sung at Latymer Upper School, is as follows:

My ole man was a lavatory cleaner,
'e cleaned them ev-ery night
And when 'e came 'ome in the morning
'e was covered all over in -
Burnish your buttons with Brasso
It's only free-ha'pence a tin;
You can buy it or swipe it from Woolworths
But I doubt if they've got any in.

Some say that 'e died orv a fever,
And some say that 'e died orv a fit;
But I know very well what 'e died orv -
'e died of the smell of the -
Burnish your buttons wiv Brasso
etc etc.

As for What a mouth, what a mouth, what an awfull mouth he had!...." about a the guy who fell asleep with his jaw agape, and the coal truck filled it, ...
, this is , I thinka traditional song that was adapted for use in "Half a sixpence" - the stage musical version of H.G.Wells' "Kipps" and sung by the inimitable Tommy Steele ( who I remember singing in a "Skiffle Group" back in the sixties, in a Coffee Bar in Soho, London)
I can't remember the whole lyric, but the chorus went something like this:-

What a mahf (mouth), what a mahf,
what a norf an' sarf
Blimey! what a mahf 'e'd got.
It looked just like a steamboat funnel or a railway arch or the Blackwall Tunnel - - - -

What a mahf (mouth), what a mahf,
what a norf an' sarf
'e's never bin known to larf.
If 'e did, it's a penny to a quid
'Is face would fall in 'alf.