A Phrase in Search of a Meaning

Culture
42

Yeah, most of them are pretty average.

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43

Good one!

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44

it’s like cats and boxes
it’s like putting a slinky on
paws not claws
take it off the drunkard, put it on the fish
like a cat up the chimney
she drove straight past the village
coming to a bullshit

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45

I used to work with a lovely older librarian from West Point, MS (also the hometown of Howlin’ Wolf) who threw out the most fantastic phrases all the time, seemingly apropos of nothing:

That’s like a frog hitting its ass on the way to the store in a hailstorm.
When the windows need cleaning, the crawfish ain’t gonna head themselves.
She’s dumber than a bag of hair sitting on a back porch with no comb.

Her name was Frances, rest in peace, dear one, and we would rush back to our cubicles to write this stuff down. Sometimes, the beauty is not knowing what it means, but in the phrasing itself.

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46

These are great. Love the crawfish one.

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47

I don’t know if this qualifies…and it’s been almost a year since my mom died and Mother’s Day is coming up and, anyhow…

When seeing an actor on TV but not knowing his name, or discussing the show he appeared on = “That guy…you know, him!”

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48

Who was in that thing… you know, with the scene with… you know… Kevin Bacon?

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49

Well, with my mom, it would be more along the lines of Strother Martin, or a character actor of that type.

Aside: Is Kevin Bacon a character actor now?

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50

Not really, but thanks to Donald Petersen, we’re all two degrees of separation from him.

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51

That’ll get your chiggers sweaty.

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52

The only phrase I can think of that I may have contributed to the greater English language – and of course saying that means I probably didn’t – was using “buggier than a swamp in June” to describe some crappy software. I was kind of proud of that one.

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53

That’s a good one!

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