Bob's yer uncle!

Did that come from a longer version?

'Bob's yer uncle, Fanny's yer aunt'

I think it was often used to confirm that something had been repaired or done properly and to someone else's satisfaction, a sort of recognition factor that it was back the way you it used to be and you'd recognise it as such and not really remember that it had been broken in the first place.

There's another one which I guess came from the longer saying:

'Not on your aunt Fanny' and also 'Not on you Nelly' both of which were used as the equivalent of 'no way' and meaning you wouldn't do that to a close and dearly loved relative (perhaps...?)

This may count as weird to most Frenchmen, Barga: a Légion �Étrangère-ism that the US Army would translate as "get off your ass": se démerder, just about always used in the imperative, démerdes-toi, démerdez-vous.

Really popular saying often used by everybody in France. (means "do it yourself, and don't bother me"). But don't say it to your boss.
Quite close from "Bouges ton cul !" "Move your ass" that means "act !"

We have "Get your ass in gear". :D :driving: :rollhappy

Aaahh, yes - AIG!

Here's one that's related and goes around the shipping fraternity. Meaning-wise it's the state that precedes and precipitates the 'get your AIG' instruction. It abbreviates to TIBAMIN, which translates as 'thumb in bum and mind in neutral!'

As a tech support rep - we had lots of PICNIC errors.

Problem's In Chair, Not In Computer

also

get the lead out

use your head for something besides a hat rack

get your head out of the sand

Get your head out of your ass!

I will stomp a mudhole in your ass and walk it dry!

You got beat like a red-headed stepchild.

Tore up from the floor up.

it sounds like another popular saying in your area would be "ah, fuck the curfew, let's burn some cars."

Here's an nice medieval English one: 'He was hoist by his own petard' meaning he stuffed himself on that one - 'scored an own goal' having a similar meaning.

Heh, petard itself is etymologically pretty rude!

Interesting (some might say disturbing!) how farting seems to creep into my contributions all too often, whether consciously or sub-consciously - must be some Freudian reason for it all I suppose....

I always understood that to be hoist by one's own petard was to be run up one's own flagpole, as it were.

In fact its closer to being a suicide bomber!

My mother always says, "Oh! Banana Oil!" instead of "Fuuuck!" Must be a Canook thing. She also cheers the soup: "C'mon, soup! Rah, rah, soup!" which is supposed to encourage it to get hot faster. She sings this while pointing her big wooden spoon at the pot. Like a diving rod.

Clearly, my problems are genetic.

I am inspired to try the soup cheer. But it may lead to the soup boo.

Or the soup WAAAAAAAVE

as clear as mud in a beer bottle

dunno if this has been posted but

GOING OFF LIKE A FROG IN A SOCK

i just like it

"Gene's Beans, they're good for your heart
The more you eat 'em, the more you fart
The more you fart, the better you feel
So eat Gene's Beans with every meal!"

Beans beans the magical fruit,
The more you eat the more you toot,
The more you eat the better you feel,
So eat your beans with every meal!

[semi hijack]

Funny bumpersticker this morning:

Have You Flogged Your Crew Today?

[/hehe]

My tonsils are floating. (hint to friends when you need to take a wizz).

I never heard that as tonsils. Always "back teeth". Perhap this is because I am from the generation that mostly had their tonsils yanked at the first signs of infection?

I still have mine, incidentally. One of the lucky few. I didn't want the ice cream that badly.

Now, when one's tonsils (or back teeth) are floating ... why do you have to see a man about a horse?

i, too, have often wondered that. It's a saying common amongst my more rustic companions.

ps-to my thinking--the more rustic, the better!

The only reason I can come up with is that placing bets on horses in public places used to be illegal (still is?) when this saying developed. It's just a way for a man to say he's off to do something private for a few minutes (could be followed by 'I'll be back in a couple of shakes'* which might gve the game away (shaking being a required finishing action!)- can't see a macho man using the 'I'm off to spend a penny' alternative. Horse racing's for men, men do manly things...!

* think the full saying was: 'I'll be back in a couple of shakes of a donkey's tail' (before you ask, no I don't, except it's something that doesn't take long to do....)

Two shakes of a lambs tale. ;)

I'm more familiar with "going to see a man about a dog", although that also fits in with Cyclefrance's betting theory.

A South African friend of mine used to say "That went down with hooks on" if he hadn't particularly enjoyed something to eat or drink (usually the first pint after a hangover...)

I wonder if there's a loose connection with the fact that the dogs (greyhounds ) start off by being put into a line of stalls.....(and horses too, these days, although I think when this saying first started they used to line up behind a tape that was raised...)

"Guess what?"

"Chicken butt!"


Don't ask. Or, ask all you want. I have *no idea* how/where that one came from.

"guess why"

"chicken thigh"

i don't know either, BigV.

"guess how"

"up a cow"


ewwww.

And Ian Fleming having a bit of fun with a phrase, shouted from offstage, as it were, in the background of a James Bond novel that has Bond taking the cure in a spa that gave plenty of enemas: "See you later, Irrigator!"

Well, it was racy about nineteen-sixty.

"In the US we say "happy as a clam". In Mexico it's "happy as a worm."

In the UK, we say Happy as Larry or I have even heard ( though a little archaic) "Happy as a sandboy"

so would you be -- if you spent your life in a bottle of Mezcal: :mg:

http://www.detnews.com/pix/2005/03/1...05_IS4SDSQ.jpg

"Avoir la gueule de bois" : "to have a wood face" : to be sick after being drunk

"Appuyer sur le champignon" : "to push the mushroom" : to accelerate

"être haut comme trois pommes" : "to be high as 3 apples" : to be small

"se creuser la tête" : "to dig one's head" : to think

"se mettre le doigt dans l'oeil" : "to put one's finger in the eye" : to be wrong / make a mistake

"tomber dans les pommes" : "to fall in the apples" : to blank out

"poser un lapin" : "to put a rabbit" : to miss a rendez-vous

"avoir un coup de foudre" : "to feel a lightning" : to love at first sight

Happy as a pig in clover (or shit)


One of my grandmother's (and therefore exceedingly old):

'In and out like a fart in a cullender'

Similar for a fussily busy person:

'Up and down like a yo-yo'

Is that typo or a difference in spelling from the american "colander"? Just wondering...

Well, I must admit that I spelled it that way, thought it looked all right, but wasn't 100% sure so checked on the internet and was told that it was an OK spelling (but so was colander.....). The strain is telling on us both!!

OH! The humanity!

I love in and out like a fart in a colander. I can't wait to use it!

Once we'd reached our teens my parents didn't watch their mouths quite as closely. The following were brought to mind by the up & down phrase & I think you can work out the subsequent theme:

Up & down like a whore's knickers
A whore's breakfast - alcohol before midday
A whore's bath - washing pits & bits in the sink
Like a whore at a christening - surprisingly decorous behaviour
Smells like a tart's boudoir - usually used about men wearing any scent but Brut for Men

"Come Hell or high water."

Going to Hell in a handbasket.

Dead to rights.

Anyone know the origin of this?

Exactly where or what is the "get-go?"

I think its the same thing as "right off the bat"

No idea, but it has reminded me of a good (well I think so - one of those with a re-usable punchline) if somewhat old joke.

Guy dies goes to heaven. St Peter at the gates to heaven asks his name. Guy tells him, Peter checks and says your not on the list, sorry fellah, you'll have to try downstairs.

Guy goes down to the Devil, same thing, so guy asks where he goes now. It's the goblins for you says Satan and directs him down some steps.

Steps seem to lead for miles but eventually they end and guy sees three goblins each standing by a door.

Guy stops at first goblin and asks what the deal is. Goblin explains that he has to choose to stay in the room behind one of the doors. Thing is though if he refuses a room then he can't go back after.

So goblin opens door to first room and guy sees all these people screaming in flames. No thanks he says and moves to the next goblin. This goblin opens his door to reveal all these people up to their necks in in water. No thanks again says the guy not fancying that one bit either (see Wolf, this is where I got the Hell and High Water connection...)

Third goblin says well, you've had your chances. He opens the third door and pushes the guy in. It's a strange room. Full of people standing in human excrement (OK, shit!). Funny thing is they're all happily smiling and drinking cups of tea from very nice bone china cups and saucers. But the smell....!

Oh, no, thinks the guy, wrong decision, and then he's handed a cup of tea himself. Hmmm, thinks the guy, sipping his tea, not a bad cup. He sips some more. Not bad at all, and, I suppose, although the smells a bit heavy, I will soon get used to it. And sure enough 5 minutes later he's beginning to feel OK about the situation, he's adjusting quite nicely. Just then however a klaxon sounds and a loud voice calls through the loud-speaker. OK, guys and gals, tea-break's over now, back on your heads!


OK, perhaps these sorts of jokes do lose a little something over the years....

:thumb:

= At any cost

God willing and the creek don't rise? = if it ain't too much trouble

The cat's got your tongue.


I'm guessing this has to do with the quiet stealthiness of cats?

I think it has to do with when the cat was in at night stealing your soul, it took your voice for good measure.

I heard a good one last night ... not a weird saying per se, but I'd never heard it put quite this way before.

Wolf: So, do you have an address?

Homeless Heroin Addict: I use my parents' address for mail and stuff, but I'm living in an abandominium in North Philly.

I'll be jiggered up a hemlock.

WTFK?

A friend from New Hampshire says this. On the other hand he also says with a leer

"Hey sunshine, ever been boned up the shitter?"

Then he cackles with laughter.

Other than that, he's totally normal.

looks like he's been beat with an ugly stick

I feel like a chittlering with the shit slung out of it

Enough of this jiggery pokery(?)

I LOVE jiggery pokery!

REVISION:

Can't get enough of this jiggery pokery

I feel like a chittlering with the shit slung out of it[/quote]

That is a southern expression for feeling wrung out. Chitterlings or more properly chittlins' are hog intestines that are boiled or fried and served with rice. To make sure they are clean before cooking you squeeze them top to bottom like a tube of tooth paste then (if your making them in the yard as is proper) sling them to get everything else out before you cut them up.

Smells like a charrnel house when cooking but not a bad meal.

How...... different(?!)

Reminds me of the local French sausage called an andouillette (please don't look at the link if you are about to have, are having, or just have had your Thanksgiving dinner - it wouldn't be fair to the person who has slaved over cooking it for you!), that I unfortunately ordered in a logis outside Poitiers. Looked great but was basically the roughly chopped intestines of a pig and not much else. Produced one of those chewing moments that sometimes arise when eating meat - you know, the ones that never seem to end because the item in your mouth never seems to get to the right size that you fancy attempting to swallow it.

I've tried "chittlins"... They wouldn't be too bad if you didn't have to smell them cooking. Most housewives forbid cooking them indoors. When cooking outdoors you can smell them for a half mile. I guess "once you get past the smell you got it licked" which would be another weird saying.

"Hope to shit in your flat hat" == I agree completely.

This one is best when yelled in a crowded area, such as a mall, a store, or church:

"HEY BABY, EVER HAVE YOUR ASSHOLE LICKED BY A FATMAN IN AN OVERCOAT?!?"

The reactions are to die for.

(Kudos to Kevin Smith.)