[lit-ideas] Re: Since You Asked
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:51:17 -0700
Bonjour, j'aimerais savoir ce que signifie
"before i pop my clogs"
contexte : il faudrait que je visite cette ville before i pop my
clogs...
merci
There's much in to be enjoy'd in English. "Pop your clogs," is among
expressions in this category.
Pawning possessions is where it comes from, like "Pop goes the
weasel," but don't get me started on what the weasel means. Try
Wikipedia. When you pop something as useful as clogs--and you'll
recall that working people all over Europe wore clogs; Yorkshiremen
developed a shin-kicking sport with them--you're at the end of your
journey, ready to die. It's people being funny in the manner of
"Dinna push yer Grannie aff a bus," Scottish advice about how to be
nice to old folk. I also like, "the dog's bollocks," which Partridge
cites as a printers' term for this particular mark :- The idea that
something good is "the dog's bollocks" is more likely to have come
from the music hall, or the sardonic inventiveness of WW1's
trenches. Anyway, last week it caused me to buy wine, sight unseen--
or the equivalent thereof re. taste--does English have an expression
for this? "Ohne swilling" sounds about right to me, but who put moi
in charge? Said wine was labelled, "The Mutts Nuts." Here's the fun:
"What shall we crack tonight dear, with the Italian recipe offal and
the mixed leaf toss up with rather cheeky balsamic drizzle?
"Have you still got that bottle of Mutts Nuts?"
"The Wrattonbully Shiraz?"
"That's the stuff, or it would be if they could remember the bloody
apostrophe."
("The stuff," another version of the dog's bollocks)
Do carry on.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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