Quoting:
Aww, the raining cats and dogs origin story was sad.   :'(
End Quote

Although, at least for the cats and dogs, one version of history can be questioned against another :

Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw - piled high, with no wood underneath.  It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.  When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof - hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

:) FBVP

Quoting:
Catch-22
End Quote

Comes from Joseph Heller's book of the same name - the premise was that you could be taken away from active service if clinically insane, but with two riders: the request for transfer had to come from you, yourself; if you requested the transfer, then you're obviously sane.

Phil

Quoting:
Aww, the raining cats and dogs origin story was sad.   :'(
End Quote

Kick The Bucket - Die

In the middle ages, a person might have tried to commit suicide by standing on a bucket, tying a noose around their neck, and kicked the bucket away. They suffered death by strangulation.

Quoting:
How about:

"You're living in LA-LA Land"

now where is the land of la-la?  ;D -howard-
:)
End Quote

I'm pretty sure it's where I work.... :-/

FBVP  :)

Quoting:
Pot calling the kettle black. When someone talks bad about someone doing something when the person talking has done the same thing.
End Quote

Like you just called me and Lester on another thread?   ;) ;D

Quoting:


Like you just called me and Lester on another thread?   ;) ;D
End Quote

well acutally I was just talking to Lester but if you want to be included in that, I'm sure that it would be ok! ;D

Quoting:


well acutally I was just talking to Lester but if you want to be included in that, I'm sure that it would be ok! ;D
End Quote

Ok..let me re-word it then!!!

Like you just called Lester on another thread?  ;) ;D

Quoting:
Pot calling the kettle black. When someone talks bad about someone doing something when the person talking has done the same thing.
End Quote

That one dates back to when pots and kettles were heated over an open fire: so both of them would be completely blackened with soot.

Phil

Quoting:
How about:

"You're living in LA-LA Land"

now where is the land of la-la?  ;D -howard-
:)
End Quote

Hey, I actually know what this one means!

LA-LA Land is a reference to Los Angeles, which is sometimes abreviated to LA.

In the early days of movie making many of hte actors and actresses would behave in ways that they would never get away with in public anywhere else.  For example using drugs, booze, and uummm, "cavorting" with persons they were not married to.  It was also the first group of people to be talked about as having weird superstitions.

Since the Hollywood types were seemingly getting away with this kind of behavior, it became common to say that people who were acting odd must be from LA-LA-Land, (or belong there).

Quoting:
Hey, I actually know what this one means!

LA-LA Land is a reference to Los Angeles, which is sometimes abreviated to LA.
End Quote

...and I thought it had something to do with Teletubbies ;-)


Phil

Quoting:
How about:

"You're living in LA-LA Land"

now where is the land of la-la?  ;D -howard-
:)
End Quote

I live in the land of LA!  ;D

Quoting:

In the early days of movie making many of hte actors and actresses would behave in ways that they would never get away with in public anywhere else.  
End Quote

'Cause that NEVER happens now-a-days. Zella, I live here too, and I would say that yes, it's definitely LaLaLand.

Quoting:


I live in the land of LA!  ;D
End Quote

I thought I did...that Kylie Minogue song keeps playing in my head...

Quoting:
Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle fingers of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger, the Brits would not be able to draw the renowned English longbow, and therefore would be incapable of fighting in the future. The longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was called "plucking the yew".

To the surprise of the French, the English won a major upset, and began mocking the French army by waving their middle fingers at them as if to say, "See, we can still pluck yew." The shortened "Pluck yew" caught on as a cry of defiance.

Over the years some folk etymologies have grown up around this symbolic gesture. "Pluck yew" is a little difficult to say (like "mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow). So the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F'.

Isn't it amazing that today the famous words often used in conjunction with the one-finger salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter?

By the way, it is because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is also known as "giving the bird."

Kryllith

End Quote

Quoting:
This thread died, and I thought it had potential, so here are a couple more :

I have no idea where they came from though.....

Full of beans (Ewwww)

Happy as Larry (Why - what does Larry know that we don't ?)


FB  :)


natmc78  -  you started this off, then we never saw you again !  You said you had heaps - where are they then ?   ;D
End Quote

How about You've Got Ants In Your Pants....of course I have to be wearing pants, now wouldn't I :D

Note To FussBudgetVanPelt:  See, this thread is still alive...or am I just Full of Bologna....or is that Mularky ;)

Quoting:
A lark is a bird that has a very happy, joyous song!
End Quote

oh ok. Thanks.

Quoting:"I'm gonna beat your brains in".End Quote

As Bill Cosby noted about his mum: "I'm going to beat you to within an inch of your life". She was going to hit him until he was *this* far?! Then *stop*?! ;)

Quoting:
"I'm gonna beat your brains in".

End Quote

A violent phrase but pretty much self-explanatory when you think of it!

Quoting:
I always hated the phrase "happy as a sand boy" and from when I was about nine or somthing I always answered by asking what on earth a 'sand boy' was?
End Quote

Not so long ago they used to have Sand Boys to run onto the Rugby (League or Union) field when a kick for goal had to be taken.

They carry a little bucket of sand so the kicker could make a mound for the ball to stand on.  The the kicker could make a big show of measuring out his steps just so, and then come running in, and stuff the kick up, and make a complete prat of himself  ;D

Dunno why the sandboy was happy though    ???

Quoting:
right...thanks.... who is larry also...and why's he happy too??
End Quote

"...Dr Orsman's suggestion is that it is more likely to come from an English dialect source, larrie, joking, jesting, a practical joke. Another possible link is with the Australian and New Zealand term larrikin for a street rowdy or young urban hooligan..."

Apparently!  :D

Quoting:

Twenty-two skidoo!
End Quote

I've heard Twenty-Three skidoo ;)

Quoting:"Mecca-lecca hi, mecca hiney ho."  End Quote

And *I* remember hearing it on Weird Al's "Pretty Fly For A Rabbi" - perhaps Al was parodying PeeWee?

Quoting:
My mum always used to say :

Keep your eyes peeled

when we were trying to spot something.

I always had these visions of someone slicing my eyeballs with a potato peeler  >:(
End Quote

Nice visual, FB! My mom used to same thing and I used to imagine the same thing!

Are we warped? :D

Quoting:
Wow, bizarre!!! Check these out.....

'I'll take my hand off your face!' -Whaaaat!!

'Cough Julia, make the baby laugh!'- who is Julia???


??? ::) :-/
End Quote

I can honestly say that I have never heard those...bizarre indeed!

Quoting:"you can't touch me with a 10 foot pole".
End Quote

Yeah that is silly

If you stood still I reckon I could huh ?

FB  ;)

Quoting:


Nice visual, FB! My mom used to same thing and I used to imagine the same thing!

Are we warped? :D
End Quote

Frankly, yes we are BanasyIsle...

It's a horrible image to have floating round your head isn't it..

Here's another along the same line....

Rusty eyeballs .....

Imagine moving them or trying to close your eyelids...

Ewwwwww !

FB  :P

Quoting:
"beat you over the head with a wet noodle".
End Quote

I've heard "40 lashes with a wet noodle"…

Quoting:


Frankly, yes we are BanasyIsle...

It's a horrible image to have floating round your head isn't it..

Here's another along the same line....

Rusty eyeballs .....

Imagine moving them or trying to close your eyelids...

Ewwwwww !

FB  :P
End Quote

OUCH!!!!! :'(