I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a compliment. Perhaps something like “adding a little spiciness to the blandness around you.” But I’ve never heard it before, and with the person who said it to me, you never can tell exactly what she means. And googling turns up nothing. Anyone know more specifically what the expression is about?
The person in question is eastern European, has lived in the US for about ten years. Her English is generally quite good. It sounds like an expression translated directly from a home language…but perhaps someone has the straight dope on this one? Worth a try, anyway! Thanks.
It doesn’t seem to have two meanings.
For any use of “you are bad like mine salt”, it doesn’t make any sense to add a dash of pepper to it, its absurd to mention a dash of pepper in a mine of salt, unless the rarity is the point.
IIRC, “salt mine” is a Europeanism for “salt shaker”, so the saying could be analogous to “You’re a speck of pepper in a salt shaker” - I.e., you’re out of place and highly noticeable for it.
I agree with the others. It either means that you are very, very good or very, very bad. Or that you are sometimes very good and at other times very bad. Or that you are simultaneously very good and very bad until you are observed in doing one and collapse the waveform.
I haven’t heard it used that way either, but I have heard it used as slang for the workplace. That lends support to interpreting it as you being the spice in an otherwise boring place.
Or it could mean you’re a contaminant that needs to be cleaned out.
