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.
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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
If you’ve got a dead hooker in the trunk drive the speed limit.
What you lack in memory, your legs suffer.
Where are you from? Over here in southern Germany it is quite common.
I’m from Sweden so this one might actually be a European thing.
That explains why I have heard about the ketchup effect before.
I mean, I have heard about it once, but still
My mom comes from rural Ontario, so I grew up hearing the sort of things you hear on Letterkenny all the time. But I grew up in the city, and I slowly realized that nobody else talks like that
“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.
Grandma’s empty threat punishment to all my cousins: “I’m gonna jerk a knot in your tail”
When something would strike you with immediate worry, like almost falling off a cliff, real ass-clenching moments, she would say: “That really pulled your pucker string”
Love and miss that woman.
“Let me put my eyes on you,” “I just wanna put eyes on you”: I don’t need anything, but I miss you and would like to visit
“Jimmy legs” : Restless legs
“Hotter than the devils draws (as in underwear) outsides” : It’s hot. No one uses “draws” for underwear anymore I guess, so I’ve started saying “hotter than the devils asshole” but it’s not as “poetic.” (Edit: Realize now it’s “drawers” but it always sounds like “draws” 😂 TIL)
Edit: Forgot one. “Cabbgae story” : When I was a kid, my grandmother told me about the milk man and, for whatever reason, my next question was “and who brings cabbage?” The response was “the cabbage man” which my grandmother explained like it was gospel. When she would bring up something, we started going, “Oh, she’s got a cabbage story.” Now a cabbage story is some old folk’s story. Like, “back when I was a kid, I walked up hill both ways!” would be a cabbage story.
The cabbage story is real cute. Might steal it
Grams pulled an uno reverse when I was complaining about the lack of buttons on tech. She said, “Oh, a cabbage story?” shook my soul 😂
“Put eyes on X” is pretty common that I’ve seen.
I’ve heard hotter than the hinges of hell, but can’t remember the context.
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.
I have recently heard similar saying with legs, meaning is the smae but different wording roughly translated from Czech:
What is not in the head, is in the legs.
Ketchup effect is good, i might use it when the situation comes. Thanks.
Sounds like something similar to the American differentiation between “book smarts” and “street smarts”, which is typically called to testify when a person who knows how to mow a lawn, work a job, and pay taxes feels intellectually challenged by a person who knows math beyond basic algebra.
Might have some orthogonality to the ever elusive concept of “common sense”, an apparently mystical concept that you either have or can never have depending on who is talking, which is only ever invoked to tell one person that their entire existence is worthless in the face of the fact that the person saying it has the magical elixir of common sense.
You’ve got to drink enough in your youth, so you can live off the bottle deposits when you’re old.
Ha! “Try to save so you don’t live on bottle deposits” I’ve heard.
“Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.” - Find a way to do it yourself, because it isn’t happening otherwise
Unless we’re related, this one isn’t just your family.
It’s like Olive Garden up in this thread
“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”.
My grandma used to say “drinking coffe standing up brings bad luck”.
While I’m not superstitious, I actually believe that taking the proper time to experience the little daily treats is necessary to get the best out of your dayI completely agree, I view it like meditation. Sit down and actually enjoy your coffee, sit and listen to music without distraction, sit and truly enjoy the moment. Without phone etc
Plenty people in my family refer to cat kneading, in Portuguese, as “dancinha do leite” (milk dance). And I always took it as if it was as universal as “amassar pãozinho” (to knead bread). Well, it isn’t; I discovered this in my adulthood. Apparently it’s from Italian.
There’s also bunch of references to someone making things worse as “batata verde” (green potato); like “xô, vá ser batata verde noutro canto” (shoo, go be a green potato elsewhere) or “[pessoa] é uma batata verde” ([person] is a green potato). I get the reasoning, but no idea where my family got this from.
I’m going to start using green potatoe, thank you.
Cats make biscuits!
If that was the case my cats are always overworking the dough. Specially when one of them sits on my lap to watch a video, she spends at least half a hour with “prrr prr [knead knead] [headbutt] prrr prr”. (She already got that my computer screen shows stuff like birds, mice and strings, but only if I’m nearby.)
“There’s always money in the banana stand”
Arrested development?
