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Sounding the pink siren

Posted by R. Berg on December 07, 2001

In Reply to: Sounding the pink siren posted by Tiko on December 05, 2001

: : : : : : : : : : : : : For non English speakers English is an easy language to learn at a basic level. Afterwards, according to my many non English speaking friends and family, there is 'an enormous mountain to climb'. Some of this is related to the widespread use of Idioms - this site is a good example! There is also the difficulty of not being able to work out from the spelling how a word is pronounced.
: : : : : : : : : : : : : Another small, but very odd, feature is the occasional use of words, which are usually the opposite in meaning, to mean the same thing! An example is 'Up' and 'Down' - obviously opposite until you tell someone to 'slow up' or 'to slow down'. In a similar vein is to 'wind up a company' or to' wind down a company'.
: : : : : : : : : : : : : Over the years I've thought of a few other examples, but I can't remember them now (?old age?). Thus, a little pre-Christmas quiz. How many other such expressions can people contribute?

: : : : : : : : : : : : First you chop a tree down, then you chop it up.

: : : : : : : : : : : "The house burned down" describes the same event as "The house burned up"--but the connotations are a little different. We think of a house as burning down to the ground or going up in smoke.

: : : : : : : : : : Wasn't this part of a Jerry Seinfeld routine: Why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?

: : : : : : : : : I don't know about Seinfeld, but George Carlin said something like that.

: : : : : : : : If olive oil is made from olives, and corn oil is made from corn, what then is baby oil made from?

: : : : : : : OK. Here's one concerning housewifery. Why is it dusting the furniture? It's de-dusting the furniture.

: : : : : : Why is that housewifery? Men and underage persons have occasionally been observed carrying dustcloths.

: : : : : In Cricket when you're 'in' you're out and when you're 'out' you're in. Make of that what you will.

: : : : I thought about adding a little disclaimer. But then I thought, nah. If you ever see a husband dusting, please take a picture and post it. Big Foot, the Lost City of Atlantis, and a husband dusting.

: : I'll take that picture next time unless I'm too busy changing a tire, OK?

: : Back to "Ba dum": Dusting furniture is like gutting fish or fleecing a rube. But we devein shrimp, not vein them.

: As a man, I've always wondered why I had to do what's stereotypically expected of me and THEN come home to help the wife with hers.

Could the reason be the male's massive physique and superior jar-opening ability?

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