Topic: local sayings

Just had a laugh in this house with my wife and son.
I was mucking about with the guitar not playing much when my wife walked in the room and said it was " brass monkeys". My boy didnt know what that meant so I told him the real saying was for when it was really cold you would say " it is cold enough to freeze the baws off a brass monkey" ( baws as in testicles). He was in hysterics laughing.
I am thinking this might be a glasweigan saying ( from Glasgow). I might be wrong though.

Anyone else know this saying?

And any other funny local saying you know come from your part of the world?

I will be making a song up with this funny line in it. I might even call it " freeze the baws" and mention how cold it is and what it can freeze the testicles of certain things or animlas or people.



Ken

ye get some that are cut out for the job and others just get by from pretending

Re: local sayings

Hi Ken I belive its an old naval saying from the days of sailing warships
           Brass monkeys where racks to hold the cannon balls made of
           brass because of all the gun powder no sparks when the metal
           balls were moved.Hence  cold enough to freeze the balls of a
           brass monkey... smile

Re: local sayings

Yes I remember this saying as a kid. Another saying similiar to that one was 'freeze the nuts of a bridge'.  Havent heard those in a while.

Brrrrr thats cold... Badeye.. cool

one caper after another

Re: local sayings

Hi Ken
"Brass monkeys" as in weather is well known down south... smile
interesting explaination from Flatpicker sounds logical.
Ark

Re: local sayings

Here's an old saying that made its rounds a few years back,implying it works well.  smile

"that's slicker then deer guts on a doorknob"

Kenny

Just Keepin on Keepin on
Martin DC15E
Cort MR710F
Squire Strat (Chinese)

Re: local sayings

I am from the Drilling Industry but, a saying we hear alot, including yours is, "It's Colder Than a Well Diggers Arse"
but don't know where it come from.
     Growing up in North Dakota was cold and these were the most used referring to cold.Also BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
We had alot of folks from the south that had to go home to get their jackets and never returned.

Later,Wayne P

Later, Wayne P

Re: local sayings

Flatpicker 55 wrote:

Hi Ken I belive its an old naval saying from the days of sailing warships
           Brass monkeys where racks to hold the cannon balls made of
           brass because of all the gun powder no sparks when the metal
           balls were moved.Hence  cold enough to freeze the balls of a
           brass monkey... smile

Ah Yes, now that I read this reply I think I seen this on tv before. So thats settled it is not a saying from glasgow, just sounds like it should be,lol.

I like badeyes nuts off a bridge lol
Also Kenny's deers guts, lol

ye get some that are cut out for the job and others just get by from pretending

Re: local sayings

This is a fun thread, anyone got any more from days gone by ??

   When one ask's me if I'm busy I usually say " I'm busyier than a one armed paper hanger
with the crabs".    Now that's busy .

  lol.. Badeye.. cool

one caper after another

Re: local sayings

The Beastie Boys have a song by this name; Brass Monkey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXZ3yUZTlrA

back to the odd/bizarre sayings;

This stuff's funnier'n' a one legged cat on a frozen pond.

or, funnier'n'a hairlip askin' for a bottle of wocestershire sauce at the steak house.........

Give everything but up.

Re: local sayings

A couple I remember "its colder then a widow's heart" and "hotter then a scorned woman in a forest fire" smile

"Growing old is not for sissies"

Re: local sayings

I use this one in the summer....."Man it's hotter than two whores having the same dream."

Re: local sayings

"That's drier than last year's birdnest"

one caper after another

Re: local sayings

old west country sayings .."Bright as a cat's arse in the moonlight"
                                       Or "Be rain or dark fore morning"

Re: local sayings

Years ago a friend described something as:

"Bigger than God's underpants"

Still makes me smile to this day. smile

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act...it is a habit.        Aristotle

Re: local sayings

My Sweet Irish Honey bought me an English to Irish translation book so we could converse.   From it, I learned two more glorious terms.

"Mankey" as in "general grungy icky dirty feeling" and "skanger," a woman of questionable moral character.

The next band I play in will be called "The Mankey Skangers" or I'm quitting.  big_smile

Someday we'll win this thing...

[url=http://www.aclosesecond.com]www.aclosesecond.com[/url]

Re: local sayings

In the southern US, it seems most sayings like this are similes relating to farm animals. I used to work with a particularly colorful redneck who had tons of 'em. I wish I had written them down.

One of may favorites, heard from my sister in law, said to my brother - "You ain't got the sense that god gave a goat".

Here's a great John Prine song based upon such sayings.

"It's A Big Old Goofy World"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZACwVOJXpn0

Rule No. 1 - If it sounds good - it is good!

Re: local sayings

Two crass ones, for which I will self-edit are:

"Colder than a witch's ***."   *** is a crass term for a mammory gland. 

The other is "Slicker than **** on ice."  **** is something that comes out the southern end of your dog when it's facing north. 

The doorknob one I always heard as "slicker than snot on a doorknob."  Which never made much sense to be because snot's kind of sticky. 

My momma had all sorts of phrases that I've no idea how they got started.  She used to say she was "mad enough to spit cotton."  She meant angry but always said mad.  No idea what it means, but I figure it must be very, very angry because she was usually a funny color between red and purple when she said it. 

My dad called someone "Lower than a pregnant snake" once.  He never says anything unpleasant about anyone.  That one's stuck with me as it was so uncharacteristic of him, but also because it was funny. 

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude

Re: local sayings

I owned a motorsports business for several years and we had a couple sayings,

"We can make your motor purr like a kitty in a creamery"

and

"If you think our prices are too high, bring your wife in and we'll dicker"    somethin like that

Later, Wayne P

Later, Wayne P

Re: local sayings

My wife's mother used expressions from a hundred years ago.
She would say:
"You don't believe horns will hook."
If you visit was too short, she said" You just come over for a chunk of fire?" and..."It's hotter than a two dollar pistol."
We often say around here:
It's slicker than owl sh##. The wind blew so hard I saw a seagull lay the same egg twice. It's so hot I saw two fire hydrants fighting over the same dog. I'm so hungry my stomach thinks my throat's cut. Lower than whale sh##. I'm so broke I can't afford to pay attention. Colder than the landlord's heart. And, busier than a one legged man in an a$$ kicking contest.

We pronounce it "Guf Coast".
Ya'll wanna go down to the Guf?

20 (edited by alansheeran 2009-02-01 09:14:26)

Re: local sayings

There are millions of these around Belfast, and people have written many books collecting them.

When saying someone was forgetful, my grandmother would say they had " a head like a hanky ball."

Expressing doubt about the veracity of a companion's last statement, you would say "Yer heads a marley" - marley being a marble - as in the little glass balls that kids play with.

If someone asked you the time, but you had no watch on, you'd  look at your wrist and say "Two hairs past a freckle".

If something was really good you'd say "You couldn't beat it with a big stick."

I recognise the "mankey", Jerome. It's originally from the French manque ( an e acute on the end there), meaning lost or done. There were a lot of Huguenots (French Protestants ) arrived in
Ireland after they were thrown out of France.

Thanks for the thread, UYK - and lang mae yer lumb reek !!! Maybe you should explain that one.

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understandin' ."    Elvis Costello

Re: local sayings

topdown wrote:

In the southern US, it seems most sayings like this are similes relating to farm animals. I used to work with a particularly colorful redneck who had tons of 'em. I wish I had written them down.

One of may favorites, heard from my sister in law, said to my brother - "You ain't got the sense that god gave a goat".

Here's a great John Prine song based upon such sayings.

"It's A Big Old Goofy World"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZACwVOJXpn0

I love this song. I done this on youtube with pictures to go wit hthe lyrics to make it a bit funnier.


Ken

ye get some that are cut out for the job and others just get by from pretending

Re: local sayings

I am totally convinced John Prine loves his job.Now you got me going I'm gonna go play a dozen Prine songs.

Your Prino, Friend  Wayne P

Later, Wayne P

Re: local sayings

This thread is as mad as a bucket of greasy frogs.

Re: local sayings

or as 'Loose as a pan of soot in a wind storm'

one caper after another

Re: local sayings

I know the Brass Monkey line very well.  To expand on another one.

It's colder than a witches t** (it's also the name of a bird species) in a brass bra in the middle of January.

Two weeks ago it got to 32 below zero in my town!  bbbbbrrrrrrrrr

Here's one from awhile back;

"He's about as useful as a one legged man in a butt kickin contest!"

"I don't have pet peeves...I have whole kennels of irritation."  --Whoopi Goldberg