“Looks like there’s a few chinks in the armor”. I heard a version of that in There’s Something About Mary and adopted it myself.
That just means that something or someone has some hidden flaws or weaknesses. I use it to describe something that appears to be almost perfect on the outside but really isn’t.
For example that picture-perfect family may look great on Christmas cards but the husband really loves hookers, the wife has bulimia and the kids are hellions. Those are some pretty serious chinks in the old armor.
I collect these out of habit, too, and use many that have already been shared. Here are a few I haven’t seen yet, several gleaned from my late Down Under husband.
“He’s as mad as a cut snake!”
“She’s more nervous than a hen on a hot brick!”
“Hey, you’re humpin’ this goat. I’m just holdin’ the horns.” (Said when you want someone else to take the lead.)
“I wouldn’t want her to fart in my last pound of flour!” (Said quietly when a heavy woman walks past.)
“If you get any skinnier, you’ll slip through your asshole and hang yourself.” (Said to someone who’s lost a lot of weight.)
“Purdier than a speckled pup in a red wagon and softer than a pocketful of mice.” (Flattery I once heard from a Southern man.)
“I’m on it like a fat kid on a jelly doughnut.” (When I’ll be taking care of it PDQ!)
That’s all I can think of for now. There are more. I’ll share if I think of them.
I started calling mental institutions the “nervous hospital” after seeing Slingblade. I have no idea if it’s a common phrase in the South, but I like it.
Of course, everyone says “Is the Pope Catholic?” when asked a question that’s obviously a yes, but if someone asks me something that is obviously no, I’ll say “Is the Pope Jewish?”
So, there’s a radio show called A Way with Words and in one episode, a caller related a story their father or grandfather had told them about working on a derrick with a Cajun and at some point while the Cajun was working up on the derrick, someone on the ground intimated that the Cajun was failing to do part of their job and punctuated it with “you son of a gun”. The cajun replied, “A cajun I is, but a son of a gun I ain’t. Now I’m gonna unclimb this derrick and give you your satisfy” whereupon he descended to the ground and the two of them had a scrap.
Anyway, the point is, I love that phrase and if someone is needling me, I love saying, “If you don’t shut up, I’m gonna unclimb this derrick and give you your satisfy.”
My stepfather was fond of the following saying when he saw an exceptionally ugly woman: “Damn, she’s got a face that would scare a hound off a gut wagon”…
And when he saw an exceptionally beautiful woman: “Damn, I’d like to bite her in the ass, get lockjaw, and have her drag me around for a week”…
The following is from a friend who grew up in extreme southern Illinois {when referring to a buck-toothed person}: “He/She could eat mashed potaters through a picket fence”…
.
I also say “It’s the bunnies” to indicate something is really good. I picked that one up from an old email newsletter from the dawn of time (Yoyodyne, if anyone remembers).