Back in my beloved Palo Alto on Sunday, I noticed it began to rain while the sun was shining. The milquetoast Californians would describe this as “raining while the sun was shining”, but we far more interesting Louisiana natives give it its proper name: “the devil is beating his wife.”
I was thinking about other expressions from my childhood, such as “two shakes of a lamb’s tail” (a short amount of time) and “a coon’s age” (a long amount of time, such as, “I haven’t seen you in a coon’s age!”) My childhood was rich with such verbal inventions.
I’m sure other Slopers have similar sayings they frequently heard in their own childhood,…….
“Well help my time!” – Iggy
…..and…..
“Don’t breathe a word about this to your mother.” – Torero
I’d be interested to hear in the comments section about interesting turns-of-phrase from your neck of the woods.
