Favorite Expressions

From my father:
He's been drinking his bathwater.
Translation: he's crazy

I was about 40 years old when I realized something my family always said, made no sense.

Mom would take the meat out of the freezer to dethaw it.

Dethaw? To dethaw would be to freeze it. But I grew up hearing that so it never clicked that it made no sense. It had never occurred to my mother either - the German side of the family. A bit of discussion and it seems likely this was a German translation error. It likely originated as "bethaw" which would loosely mean "to thaw". And it later degenerated into dethaw.

 

My father used to say...

"Only a light bulb can stay out all night and be bright the next morning." (get to bed)
"A million dollar settlement is useless if all you can do is move your eyeballs." (be careful on the road)
"This is a testing place, not a resting place." (life is challenging, man up).

"Dethaw" is one of my pet peeves. My mother and grandmother say it too.

 

Interesting. My family said thaw but I can see how growing up w/ a "nonsense " word would make it make sense to you. I grew up hearing 'worsh' instead of wash....but my daughter didn't get it ingrained like I did cause she corrects me every time.

 

My mother's side also worshed their clothes.

 

No kidding!!! I have never met anyone else who said this. Are your mother and grandmother of German ancestry?

 

My second college calculus teacher in reference to her homework assignments: You can sleep when you die. Until then you're mine!

 

Nope. My grandmother was from Missouri but my mother was born, raised and has always lived in Chicago. They are just goofy.

They also fight about "I could care less" versus "I couldn't care less". Half the family says it one way and the other half says the it the other.

Cotton balls in the ears is the only remedy short of piercing my own eardrums. LOL

 

Mine too. Maybe we're all distant cousins! LOL

 

Illinois is where my mother's family originates. That is German country. Could be local cultural but originates from the German language.

Have you ever had summer sausage from Illinois - the really hard stuff? The cousins would always send some each year. Mmmmmm! So good!!!

 

I didn't know that. I don't think we have any German ancestry but I'm not sure. I'll have to ask my mother. People complain about immigrants but I think it's great America is a melting pot. We pick up quite a bit from one another along the way.

Yes. My dad was a Green Beret and we were required to have Sunday dinners in the formal dining room and every few months we were required to go to ethnic restaurants and have something we've never tried before. Fortunately, my family didn't teach us to be racists and I wasn't even aware that some people have an "issue" with ethnic foods (which is not based on them being a dish one doesn't care for). One of my current neighbors won't eat Chinese, Mexican or Italian food. I tried explaining to him that almost none of the Americanized versions are "authentic" <country of origin> but he doesn't care. He won't even attempt it. The strangest part is he is not racist against non-white people.

 

When we were teenagers and a hard time sticking to a task he'd tell us "If the dog didn't stop to take a sh** he'd have caught the rabbit."

 

"Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey"

Acquired just recently from Killing Eve

"A few roos loose in the paddock" to describe insanity.

 

"Not my monkeys, not my circus."

Basically just means 'this isn't my problem, but it will become my problem if I involve myself, so I wont.'

 

If people spent half as much time and effort doing their job as they do about making excuses for why they did not do their job, they would get twice as much done.

An observation of mine that I have made!

 

May I ask how long ago you heard that? I heard it for the first time about 4 years ago. The property manager of my building was ticked off that one of our older residents was asking me and other neighbors to take her trash bag to the trash chute for her. She told me that I didn't have to help her and I assured that I'm aware of that. I've *always* helped my neighbors wherever I've lived. I always checked in on my elderly relatives when they were alive as well. I can't wait until those jerks get old. It's not hard to be kind to people and it's not necessary to be mean even if one doesn't want to help.

She said that this is not assisted living and said that phrase and I just stopped in my tracks. I never heard it before. And, then before the election somebody here wrote, in reference to Trump, "elect a clown, get a circus". I never heard that either. I wonder if those circus references are regional.

 

OMG! My father said that ALL THE TIME. He had 5-6 phrases that he constantly repeated.

I thought of another one he said. "Set your watch according to your employer's clock. In fact, set it a few minutes back so you're never late." I wish EVERYBODY's dad told them that!

 

Apparently I taught my family “it is what it is” as a kind of shrug, just accept things as they are.

But I think my favorite expression comes from a song called Pierrot. The problem is that it’s in Spanish so I have to translate. It goes something like “if you need to cry, let it out. If you need to be angry, shout. It’s alright there’s nothing you have to hide”. I also like saying “up” when lifting something up and this is a mistranslation of a song lyric but “it’s a world where only god knows the truth”.

 

I can't recall when or where I heard it. Might've been a TV show. But it was a long time ago.

 

One of my favorite and most useful expressions / quotes is from Shakespeare's "As You Like It":

“Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

 

Another observation of mine somewhat related to the previous one....

"That which you tolerate, you will get more of".

If people are allowed to be late and do a half ass job because there are no consequences, then that is what they will continue to do.

I need to go ahead and take my vacation and then get a better job. Lol

 

Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

 

That's a Gallagher joke..

 

Recently I used the expression, "He's run that dog to death",
in reference to an engineer who tried for months to prove his failed theory.

I have no idea where that came from and I think I might have made it up. LOL!