Silly Sayings

... to the tune of Frere Jaques. We used to sing that in Guides.

elegran

Life is butter
Life is butter
Life is butter melon
Cauliflower.

Sung as a round.

I was just reading an old thread on mispronunciation which was very funny, being a 'mizzled' (misled) person myself.

DD1 told me that she was grown up before she realised what the correct words were to 'row, row, row your boat'. Apparently she always thought the last line was 'life is butter dream' and always wondered what a 'butter dream' was.

Yes - my Dad (a cockney) used to say strike a light, rather than shine a light.

Our silly saying is "I've got the feelups" to describe how you feel when you first wake up. It is a warning to others to steer clear as you are a bit grumpy.

DH sorry!

"You're as black as the Ace of spades" when I came in from playing.

Pointing Percy etc is a saying DHA uses, elegran, I thought it could be a R. Naval expression.

My Grandad always used to say we were "as black at Newgate's (it was pronounced newgits) Knocker" when we came in dirty.

When I was a teenager out with a mixed crowd of young people, one of the lads said he was going "where all the the big nobs hang out", and I still laugh about it now.

Hell's Bells and buckets of trout - is one of my favourites.

"Ee, tha's a closet!" Meaning "You are a water closet" as in "You are daft."

"What a cough drop!" similar to above but usually said to a child.

"I'll hang you up by your stocking tops!" - a mild threat.

"As true as I'm smoking this ferret." I think I made that one up but use it all the time.

We would say "strike a light" not shine it.

"Must go and point Percy at the porcelain."

My mum used to talk about people having hair 'like a yard of pump water'
i.e. very straight.

roseq I used to work with a lovely lady who used 'sugarlumps' rather than an expletive. Later when I worked in a school it became very useful

I'm ashamed to admit it but I found myself saying what Miranda's Mum says when I was in Tesco the other day with DH

"Well it's what I call a ....... " - then correcting myself and saying "it's what everyone calls it!"
Only to find DH had disappeared and I was talking to a stranger. It was what I call a faux pas

Oh! Sugarlumps!
I have heard DH say "carrying on like a pork chop"

we used say charlies dead for petticoat showing at school, when the eldest kids were small we had a puppy I was training and for 'come' I used cushti, it became a code word for the girls, something I could yell in a crowded place and the kids knew it was me, and was meant for them.( the kids started it by heading my way with the dog)

When excusing yourself from a gathering for a trip to the loo. My sister always says "I've just got to go and turn the Vicars bike around", and no I have absolutely no idea where she got it from - and she's not saying.

And 'it's snowing down south' for the same thing.

Do you remember that if your slip was showing, somebody always said that somebody or other is dead?Can't remember the name though was it Charley?As in 'Charley's dead!' That sounds about right.

Yes, I am from Yorkshire and I have definitely heard people say this in the past [shine a light!] I took it to mean seeing something[or hearing something] so amazing that you need to see it properly;shine a light on it.

Just googled it - apparently it's a Northern English expression which is indeed used instead of an expletive!

I've heard 'shine a light!' and I think I've used it myself. I wonder where it came from?

There are sayings here in Australia that make little sense to me. One is "carrying on like a pork chop". I mean, how DOES a pork chop carry on? I suspect the saying means 'making a fuss', but still....

Go home, your rabbit's dead!

Usually, but not always, said to a child. Originally I guess it meant something like "stop pestering me", but when our children were growing up it would get used in all sorts of situations

Whenever Ime tempted (or provoked) into saying an expletive, I come out with "Shine a light!" I learned that years ago from an old lady who would come out with funny sayings as well (cant remember them now); Shine a light!"

Sounds immeasurably painful.

Nothing on Google. Maybe I did invent the silly saying, trouble is it has become part of me.