In the words of Charlie Brown, “Somebody’s got to make up those old sayings, you know!”
What saying or idiom did you invent that you think ought to be a well-known expression? Post it here and I promise to use it in conversation henceforth!
I’ll lead off:
Zeno’s cookie (alternatively “Zeno’s cupcake”, “Zeno’s doughnut”, etc.): The last one in the box that nobody wants to take for fear of looking greedy or depriving others, so somebody takes half of it, and somebody else takes half of the remaining half, and so forth. (Name derived from the classical paradoxes.)
Arthur C. Clarke famously said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
After hearing a famous cosmologist go on about multiverses and string theory recently, I realized that: “Any sufficiently modern cosmology is indistinguishable from religion.”
Clogger. This phrase comes from Ultimate Frisbee where someone clogs the passing lane by standing around and not moving in and out.
It refers to assholes who park in the fast lane driving exactly the same speed as the person in the lane next to them, with miles of empty highway in front of them. It’s making my blood boil just typing this. Get out of the god damn fast lane and let people pass. It’s actually illegal in California and I wish the CHP would enforce the law aggressively. I’m convinced these retards are causing way more trouble than people who are speeding.
Alien Questions. A question which displays an almost comical lack of understanding of the way people behave. To the point where you (facetiously) wonder if the poster is an extraterrestrial being of some sort. As another doper put it, it’s the sort of question Data from Star Trek would ask.
I realized this a few years ago. Cosmology in general isn’t a science, it’s a philosophy.
For years, I’ve referred to a staycation as an “Al Bundy Vacation” based on an episode where he puts a barrier around the couch and sits there imagining he’s at some exotic locale.
With respect to self evaluation, I tell my kids and subordinates, “Don’t cheat at solitaire.” Meaning if for example, someone offers to help you and you say either you don’t need it when you know you do, its like cheating at solitaire–you get a hollow victory.
Misled (except you pronounce it “MY-zelled”) or Misling (“MY-zling”) - to hide the good beer, or other desireable consumable, from your roommate or sibling by putting it in the vegetable bin.
the NQRs - I didn’t make this up - its pretty common in the horse world. I bet lots of industries use it, but maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, NQR= Not Quite Right. Basically means a visible symptom with no discernable cause. When someone/something is “off” in some indefinable way, it has a case of the NQRs.
“Speaking of dolphins as we were.” It’s when you want to transition from one topic to another one abruptly. It was used in my college group after one woman wrote it in a paper that had nothing about dolphins in it.
Considering the forum I’ll keep it clean. I like a good swear now and again but always try to use it as exclamation rather than punctuation, I think words lose their power the more you use them. With that in mind I give you my sage advice…