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.
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.
“you don’t speak unless spoken to”
(i had a shitty family lol)
“There’s always money in the banana stand”
Arrested development?
For your third example - my mom says “My head wouldn’t save my heels”
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.
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.)
I’m going to start using green potatoe, thank you.
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
“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!
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.
“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.
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!
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.
If you’ve got a dead hooker in the trunk drive the speed limit.
One crime at a time!
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
“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.
“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.
“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.”
It’s actually “drawers” but I guess they sound the same in certain accents.
When people spell what they hear, it’s the countryside victimized the most. It’s nearly the argument I had with Doctorov (a pointless effort, I’ll tell ya).
Ohhh! Thank you for the correction!
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 😂