# Have you ever heard these expressions?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 17, 2000, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777 "2000-05-17T18:26:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/21 "2000-05-17T20:42:08Z")
“Frog in a sock!”
I gotta move to Australia, I love you guys . . .
---
### Author:  [@KimKatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KimKatt)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/22 "2000-05-17T20:42:51Z")
Hey, I didn’t know about the restrooms and washrooms one, though I do say washrooms normally, and have been looked at oddly a few times. I have taken to saying Ladies Room to make sure people know what I’m talking about.
Maybe the “right proper” comes from my stepfather, who hails from Europe. France, though, not England…
And as for the gravy on the fries - nope, not the cream gravy. Regular chicken or beef gravy. I also hear that you don’t have french fries at Kentucky Fried Chicken down south. I’m aghast.
---
### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2000, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/23 "2000-05-17T21:10:50Z")
Right proper Sh\*t I’ve heard, but only from those wonderous people from the Maritimes, that and “Where ya bye?” (meaning of course where are you and “me ol trout” (term of endearment). Hell’s half acre I hear all the time.
---
### Author:  [@trilobite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trilobite)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2000, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/24 "2000-05-17T23:06:47Z")
Good gravy! Don’t U.S. fast food joints offer poutine?
Poutine, for the non-cognoscenti, is fries, gravy and cheese curds. In Quebec, these are considered the three major food groups.
Speaking of poutine, french newspapers also now spell the new Russian head ‘Poutine’ and not “Putin”, as the anglos do. Its a good thing, as “Putin” is a nasty insult in French, suggesting whoriness.
Just the same, I kinda hope that Russia invades Kurdistan, just to get the headline
PUTIN ATTACKS KURDS. 🙂
Just a thought.
Cheers!
---
### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2000, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/25 "2000-05-17T23:17:24Z")
I remember “Hell’s half-acre” from boyhood in Texas.
---
### Author:  [@pipefitter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pipefitter)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/26 "2000-05-17T23:21:25Z")
Have they gooten rid of pizza at McDonalds. Haven’t listened to the Canadian stations lately.
For your info, I live over the border on the Detroit side.
Ay.
---
### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/27 "2000-05-18T00:15:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> **Just the same, I kinda hope that Russia invades Kurdistan, just to get the headline
> PUTIN ATTACKS KURDS. 🙂**
Oh, good **Lord** , Trilobite…that had me rolling…
Yegads…What an evil sense of humour you have…
---
### Author:  [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/28 "2000-05-18T00:24:23Z")
“Honey, you look like homemade shit!”
I think Harvey Firestein used that one.
“As dumb as a bagfull of hammers.”
My current favorite.
---
### Author:  [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/29 "2000-05-18T00:33:41Z")
A variation:
“Dumb as a \*sack[i/] of hammers.” rolls nicely off the tongue
---
### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/30 "2000-05-18T00:35:30Z")
Aussie expressions always crack me up… a friend of mine is from OZ (Melbourne) and he always has some to spare:
“Gotta run mate, I’m flying around like a blue ass fly!”
“I gotta go see a man about a _dog_.” (Yup, a dog. Skip the horse :D)
“I’m off, I’m busier than a one-armed taxi driver with crabs!”
Of course, there is only one thing to put on fries. **Mayonaise** , you heretics! Yes, the Pulp Fiction skit is true. We _do_ f\*\*\*in’ drown 'em in it 😃
And now, just to see where the _real_ Aussies are:
_Coldfire takes a deep breath and braces himself. Then, he shouts:_
**AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE??**
---
### Author:  [@ultress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultress)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/31 "2000-05-18T00:39:15Z")
I’ve heard both expressions. No gravy on fries, only ketchup. My niece uses mayo. But definitely no gravy.
---
### Author:  [@Loki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loki)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/32 "2000-05-18T00:44:28Z")
Oy Oy Oy!!
That’s a false positive, Coldfire, I’m English 😛
---
### Author:  [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/33 "2000-05-18T01:05:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> Loki - Oy Oy Oy!!
> \*\*
Local variant; the song of the Engineering students (most often encountered during pub-crawls and “dead ants” in street intersections):
Ziggy Ziggy Ziggy!
Oy Oy Oy!
Ziggy Ziggy Ziggy!
Oy Oy Oy!
Ziggy!
Oy!
Ziggy!
Oy!
Ziggy Ziggy Ziggy!
Oy Oy Oy!
> [@](#):
>
> Loki’s sig: Necrophilia is never having to say you’re sorry.
That’s funny; I thought it was never having to say “I love you”. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Shadenwawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadenwawa)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/34 "2000-05-18T01:07:49Z")
I don’t like ketchup, so I’ve taken to putting Sweet and Sour sauce on my fries. mmm. Esp. Jack in the Box, which I hear there are tons more of here on the west coast.
-S
---
### Author:  [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/35 "2000-05-18T01:09:11Z")
Some of these are great! From my past in the great heartland of America (oh, we quaint bucolic types!):
- Hell’s half acre; similar to the north forty, e.g. chased that point all over the north forty.
- ugly as homemade sin
- barefoot, used to describe coffee; if you drink it black, plain as it pours, you drink your coffee barefoot.
- nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers (i.e. rocking chairs)
- I like the Aussie cab driver example better, but there’s also “busier than a one-armed paper hanger”–referring to hanging wallpaper.
- a drenching rain is a frog-strangler.
- heavy rain pounding on the roof and rushing through the gutters “sounds like a cow pissin’ on a flat rock”.
I’ll go away now.
Veb
---
### Author:  [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/36 "2000-05-18T01:58:26Z")
I guess that here, closer to Mexico, we know that Mexicans don’t make french fries, at least traditionally. I put mustard on mine, thank you very much.
But back to the topic…Hells half acre, yes. Right shit, no. I liked the one posted recently about washing your ass and drinking the water…what a visual!!
---
### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/37 "2000-05-18T15:11:41Z")
Hell’s Half-Acre Seems to be a pretty common phrase.
**Hell’s Half-Acre**
[Bookfinder](http://www.bookfinder.com) finds five books with this title. All take place in Texas (one is a Walker, Texas Ranger novel!) and where I could tell all refer to the Ft. Worth area.
[IMDb](http://www.imdb.com) turns up a 1954 movie with this title. A mystery set in Honolulu.
[The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names](http://shiva.pub.getty.edu/cgi-bin/tgn_browser/tgn.spl?keywords=hell%27s+half+acre&file=%2Ftgn_browser%2Findex.html&searchtype=keyword) turns up 18 places that still have that name (plus another five that have Hell’s Half Acre listed as an alternative/superceded name). Highlights:
[ul]
[li]Arizona has four areas with this name.[/li][li]Florida has an island and a bay so monikered.[/li][li]Maine has a sand bar.[/li][li]Hell’s Half Acre is a town in South Carolina.[/li][li]Texas has two peaks, a basin, and a swamp.[/li][/ul]
I can probably find more (and continue to bore you with it) but the office LAN is experiencing its 5:00pm slow-down. So I’ll stop for now.
---
### Author:  [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/38 "2000-05-18T15:22:10Z")
A short Texas story:
On being asked how he liked living in Texas, LBJ replied, “well, if I owned property in Hell and Texas, I’d live in Hell and rent out Texas.”
So, what does everyone call the little instrument you use to punch triangular holes in big cans of juice/Hershey’s syrup/Hawaiian punch? I grew up calling it a “church key”, but once I got out into the real world, no one knew what the heck I was talking about.
---
### Author:  [@i1055](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/i1055)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/39 "2000-05-18T15:28:51Z")
have not heard hell’s half acre, nor the other
one of my favorites is “shaking like a dog trying to pass a peach pit”
---
### Author:  [@KimKatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KimKatt)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2000, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777/40 "2000-05-18T15:37:25Z")
::deep breath::
Okay.
No gravy on my fries, usually just salt, but most people I know do put gravy on, and any restaurant you order them in will ask you if you want gravy. Vinegar is popular too, but I think ketchup is still number one.
I don’t even want to get into the Maritimers expressions. That’s like a whole new language.
We still have pizza at McDonalds. ( **pipefitter** - hi neighbour!)
Dumb as a sackful of hammers I’ve heard many times.
We don’t have Jack-in-the-Box here. Or White Castle. The latter, I still do not understand the appeal of. I think those little square squishy burgers are vile.
And the thing you punch holes into cans with - a can opener. Gets confusing, as that’s also the electric or hand held thing for removing can lids, too.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777.md?page=1)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-these-expressions/19777.md?page=3)