shnrrphfpt
(offers nasal spray to SeaDragonTattoo)
“Get away from me, or I’ll hit you with this tire iron” returns two results on Google.
Three now, I guess. :o
Has anyone seen Sam Lowry!?
I don’t understand the question and I won’t respond to it.
(Explaining why the US Air Force is one of the most powerful fighting forces in the world)
“If you were to point to any spot on a map of the world, the US Air Force has the capability to put your fingerprint there.”
The first person to understand that particular choice of words and what they meant was my squadron commander, who took a good five or ten seconds of staring at me before it clicked. (I do, of course, make a reference to making a big ass crater. I would rather it not come up very often, but we DO have the capability if it’s ever needed. Preferably for something utterly awesome, like taking out an invading alien beachhead or a giant mutant squid. Something like that.)
Some of the terminology I brought with me from when I was in college. Howdy, the occasional “Thanks and Gig’em”, Pull Out, Whip Out, Drop Handles, Smoking, “Shoot me the name of object”, and of course, I get funny looks when I respond to good news with a Whoop (though I guess that doesn’t count, as most folks can figure out what I mean by “WHOOP!”)
Oh, and if I start talking in Chinese, or worse, Chingspaniol (what happens when I try to speak Chinese or Spanish and the words get mixed up). Some canned phrases, like “Duibuqi” (I’m sorry) or “Nihao” (Howdy) get blank looks. Oddly enough, if I start cussing in Chinese, everybody can understand me clearly.
No! They don’t! And I don’t!
And a lot of people here have yet to, in real life, smile comprehendingly. Okay, maybe they’re just shrugging and wandering off to MPSIMS. But I have to KNOW! (Y’know, Ignorance Not Going Unfought and all that). And googling usually brings up thousands of hits, or, in at least one case, one hit. This thread.
So… anyone want to explain, or guess at, the references? (or heck, at least just make something up, I mean, it’s just words on the internet…) (I keeeedeeeng!)
And just to show what an accommodating guy I am:
I keeeedeeeng! = That friend of Andy Samberg… on SNL…aha, Bill Hader! Playing a talk show host on an odd, so-foreign-as-to-be-incomprehensible, celebrity interview show.
So, now, in our family, the kids and I (not the wife, oh, no. Somebody has to be the adult!) can make any outlandish suggestion or insult. As long as it is followed within 20 seconds by "I keeeedeeeng!"
Maybe it was Utah…from the end of the wonderful Coen Bros flick ‘Raising Arizona’, when H.I. is describing a vision he’d had of his future as a content grandparent in an seemingly idyllic place, far from all the strife and conflict he has encountered throughout the story: ‘…I dunno…maybe it was Utah.’ Classic. The best argument for respecting Nicholas Cage that Hollywood has ever produced.
In homage to ‘Heathers’, my favorite expression of exasperation: ‘F**k me gently with a chainsaw.’ Good for use in lieu of ‘cry me a river.’
Oh! Just remembered. About a week ago I was walking into a store, and near the entrance were two kids, boys, just goofing around a bit, probably waiting for their parents. The older one, about 10, was holding a box that contained some sort of toy air rifle (wish I remembered the name of it, but it wasn’t, well, you know).
I couldn’t help myself. As we walked past, I said, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!” with a smile and a wink.
His blank look about crushed my heart. So much for beloved Christmas family classics that “everyone” has seen.
My coworkers, all much younger than me, blank out when I say “and they ate Robin’s minstrels.”
Which puts me in mind of the end of Harvey, where the doctor asks the Eponymous Rabbit (no, not a band name):
“Have you ever been…to…Akron…?”
One I just used today most people seem to never understand: A red letter day.
I swear this is a real phrase, but every time I use it no one gets what it means. It’s just a very important day…one you would mark in red letters on a calender. Also Jesus’s words in the good book. Anyone else ever heard of it?
Also if something isn’t working for someone I pull a Dr. Evanzan voice from Star Wars and say “He/she/it doesn’t like you…I don’t like you either!” Few get the reference
Other person “Thank you”
Me “You’rerealscum”
Other person blink
Other person “Should I put some more on?”
Me “whadya call me?!”
Other person blink
I’m an unappreciated nerd.
Yeah, it’s the name of the second chapter of Half Life 2, IIRC. I had to look it up after Dr. Kleiner used that expression in the game.
I’ve heard of it and had no idea people had not heard of it. Weird.
So then what exactly does it mean?
I think you should ask Sir T-Cups. He had a perfectly serviceable explanation in post 33.
And, yes, I’ve heard it all my life. And it makes sense, unlike all the other “old sayings” that my mom trots out:
“Maybe I’ll have a snack to Tide Me Over.”
“Ummm, mom? Did you really want some laundry detergent? Or did you mean ‘enough to keep you from being hungry until the tide comes in and we can set sail?’ Or did you want to eat something while tied up?”
“Well, I don’t know what it means… Oh, you understand…”
“Actually, I don’t. And you don’t. So why do you use a phrase that you don’t know the meaning of?”
“Oh, I’ll get myself something…”
I would have thought this was pretty universally-known, but I can see that Sir T-Cups’ explanation might not parse well for someone totally in the dark. So…
“Red Letter editions” of the Bible used to be popular. In these, words attributed to Jesus were printed in red, for special emphasis, as something worth paying particular attention to. By extension, a “Red Letter day” is an especially significant day.
I realize that this explanation may disappoint those few who might reasonably have inferred that a “Red Letter day” is one which presents the opportunity for illicit sex.
Wait, red letter days didn’t come from the Sundays being printed on red on the church calendars? That’s what I was told it was, and sure enough, the Sundays were always in red on the Episcopal calendars I’ve seen. (I haven’t seen other denominations’ calendars.)