cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/14650446
As I was growing up, my family had a couple of sayings I took for granted were universal, at least within my language. As I became an adult I have learned that these are not universal at all:
- the ketchup effect. It is an expression meaning that when things arrive, they all arrive at the same time. Think of an old school glass ketchup bottle. When you hit the bottom of it, first there is nothing, then there is nothing and then the entire content is on your food.
- faster than Jesus slid down the mount of olives. Basically a saying that implies that the mount of olives is slippery due to olive oil and Jesus slipped.
- What you lack in memory, your legs suffer. An expression meaning that when you are forgetful, you usually need to run back and thus your legs suffer.
Please share your own weird family sayings.
A few from my grandfather and father which aren’t unique to them but aren’t universal:
- “red as a smacked ass” or just “smacked ass” - referring to someone who is embarrassed so their face is flushed or generally just a fool
- “Born on Wednesday looking both ways for the weekend” - someone with a lazy eye
- “Scissor grinder” - aggravating person, or someone who inserts themselves into other’s business. Ostensibly referring to a person who travels offering sharpening services because they come by unannounced and make a lot of noise in the street.
Related, but not a saying, we had a family tradition at Easter where my grandparents/parents would put all the egg dyes together and dye a final egg a murky brown. That egg was given to the kid with the worst behavior over the last year. It was called the “pissmuckle” egg. There was no discussion after you got it either or any punishment, it was just a censure.
Did the recipient eat it?
That’s what always happened since no one had the courage to just throw it away.
“Everybody’s record starts somewhere.” If you’re considering doing something illegal, is this worth starting your record? (It’s also used to dismiss someone getting into trouble for the right reason.)
I’m realizing that my previous one sets a bad tone for this, but I had hippie uncles, and we were all taught, “We do not cooperate with the police.” Some of us were recently reminiscing about one of my dead uncles and said, “We do not-!” And the rest of us said, “-cooperate with the police!”
All the rest of them are your typical American South sayings.
If you’ve got a dead hooker in the trunk drive the speed limit.
One crime at a time!
The last one is a legit saying in Germany “Was man nicht im Kopf hat, hat man in den Beinen” (What you don’t have in your head you have in your legs.)
If you are not german (I guess if you were, you would know this is a common saying) maybe your family heard it from some German friends or acquaintance and adapted it.
“There’s always money in the banana stand”
Arrested development?
“If you sing at the table you’ll cry before you go to bed.” I thought it was super common until I said it to my kid and my partner thought I was crazy.
For your third example - my mom says “My head wouldn’t save my heels”
Never heard them but there’s something vaguely similar in Italian, going “chi non ha testa abbia gambe” literally “who doesn’t have head, have legs” used in various situations like when you go out and forget something (because you didn’t think of it) you gotta use your legs to go back and take it
Exact same phrase in greek. And pretty sure it’s universal within the language
Similar in German: Was man nicht im Kopf hat, muss man in den Beinen haben. – What you don’t have in the head, you must have in the legs.
So apparently I have a similar contorted expression to my mother when eating sour food.
My father always referred to this as my mother’s-maiden-name-gene. Let’s say her maiden name was Chaplin, he would say “Ah there’s that Chaplin gene again!”
Being young I misunderstood this as a verb, ie. I was “chaplinging”.
Cut to first year of school where I proudly waltz around informing any classmates eating fizzy sweets that the correct and proper term for their reaction is “chaplinging”. It was a few years until the penny dropped.
ha! on an unrelated note I didn’t know that the impression “the penny dropped” was in english always thought that the expression “jeton düştü” was isolated to my language (turkish)
That’s really cool!
“you don’t speak unless spoken to”
(i had a shitty family lol)
That one is stupid with two O’s
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6 one way, a half dozen the other.
This is fairly common in my experience.
Tomato, tomatoe
“The goat man will get you.”
Used as a warning when doing something careless that would invite predators. My great-grandma came to the US from the Czech Republic and told the story of a man who raised goats and would steal children and break into homes at night. It was a reminder to lock your doors and valuables, and to never walk alone in shady neighborhoods.
I wish I could remember how to say it in Czech. It began with “Kuzubah”.
Kozí muž si pro tebe přijde (The goat man will come for you) ?
I think that’s it!
№2 sounds like something Biden would say
Yep. It’s a complete sentence from someone who can make those.
“Look, folks, it’s like this—so fast, okay? Really fast, like nobody’s ever seen before. It’s like sliding down Mount of Olives, which, by the way, is a beautiful place, tremendous. But this—this is faster, much faster. Believe me.”
The contrast is stark.