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The "Pleasing Phrase" Thread

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Portage, Wis.

Benzadmiral

Call Me a Cab
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2,815
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The Swamp
What a neat thread. I don't know if this qualifies, but my mother, who was from Saskatchewan, always referred to a Phillips head screwdriver as a "French" screwdriver. I still do it now and then, which causes no end of confusion with people. No Canadian, or anyone else, I've ever met knows the term. (Her father was Swedish and her mother Ruthenian, from Eastern Europe, so maybe it originated in one of those languages?)

And I'm sure someone here has mentioned the hoary classic, "Now we're cooking with gas on the front burner."
 

frussell

One Too Many
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1,409
Location
California Desert
My grandfather had many colorful sayings, referring to anyone who could not properly ride a horse as a "peckerneck." He had two that I've never heard before or since. The first is if he thought you were wrong about something, he'd tell you your "a$$ is full of blue mud." The second one probably made more sense in a bygone era: when too chilly, he'd tell you he was "colder than a well-digger's a$$." During his stint as local mayor, he was occasionally heard to refer to another city council member as a "windy old sister." The one that used to make me laugh as a young man was everytime we went into a tunnel, dark room or the lights went out, he would yell in his best Leo Carrillo voice: "Turn on the lights, I think I got my seester!" Even when I didn't get what it meant, it cracked me up. Frank
 

Miss Golightly

Call Me a Cab
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2,312
Location
Dublin, Ireland
My Mum has so many sayings but here are a few of my favourites:

"As old as Kate Kearney's cat"

"You may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb"

"Many a slip can happen between the cup and the lip"

"As long as the pitcher goes to the well it will get broken"

"The darkest hour is before the dawn"

Someone "looking like the wreck of the Hesperus"
 

Emily the Storyteller

New in Town
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25
Location
Essex
All the ones that bring out my inner Londoner:

Cup o'char
Getting one's barnet cut
Having a butcher's
A load of cobblers
Use yer loaf.

I'm secretly a Cockney, doncha know :p
 

Undertow

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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3,126
Location
Des Moines, IA, US
My Dad had a couple that cracked me up:

'You're as useless as t*ts on a bull.'

'It's colder than a witch's t*t.'

I would guess the meanings are obvious.

My paternal grandfather would say, "As useless as t*ts on a boar hog," and "Colder than a witch's t*tties in a brass bra."

He also had, "Colder than a well digger's ass," and "He's got such bad luck, he could fall into a bucket of t*ts and come out with a d*ck in his mouth."

Of course, my paternal grandfather was a crass misogynist that no one in the family particularly cared for...
 

Undertow

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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3,126
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Des Moines, IA, US
I'm sorry to say I have yet to watch an Ingmar Bergman movie! I've seen many skits of his films but would like to see some of his most lauded ones so I can have an idea of what he's about.....

I know it's off topic again, but I have always highly recommended Bergman's work to anyone interested.

Like Hitchcock, Bergman has a way with setting his audience on edge. He creates an atmosphere that simply melts around you. His camera work and his vision is oft repeated and quite stricking. I would recommend The Seventh Seal, Through a Glass Darkly and The Hour of the Wolf. All of them are simply marvelous examples of film making.
 

Gin&Tonics

Practically Family
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899
Location
The outer frontier
My parents, particularly my dad, having been raised by fairly old parents (they were fairly old when they had me too) used to come out with some awesome quirky old phrases from time to time. Let me see if I can remember some...

"Busier 'n a one armed paper-hanger" - meaning wallpaper - try doing that with only one arm

And in the same vein, "Busier 'n a one-legged man at an ass kicking contest" - this one made me burst out laughing the first time my dad said it

"He didn't know whether to whistle or wind his watch."

"An empty house is better than a bad tennant." - my grandmother's favourite saying in reference to someone farting

"She's built like a brick shithouse!" - that is to say, very well

"I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night, sweetheart!"

"You drive for a while and I'll shovel." - meaning, you're trying to bullshit me, but it isn't working. I particularly like this one.

There's probably many more but unfortunately they escape me at the moment. I'll post more if they come to me.

edit: I just remembered they also used, "The pot calling the kettle black" and "ass over teakettle"

Also, one of my dad's favourites, "Well, that was about as exciting as a fart in a wind storm."

When someone gets up to use the restroom, "Mention my name, you'll get a good seat!"

"Talking to Rolf on the big white telephone" -another one that made me laugh out loud; referring to someone tossing their cookies
 
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Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
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2,808
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Cobourg
How about going lickety split for going very fast? Or going like 60, or going a mile a minute from when 60 miles an hour was burning up the road? Or scorching for riding a bicycle fast. All those must be 100 years old by now.
 
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