Language is amazing and baffling; taboo is just as amazing and sometimes more baffling. I totally get that there are some things you just don’t say, because language is even more powerful than it is amazing and baffling. What’s amusing is the playing it safe, like bleeps, or “the (first letter)-word,” or spelling out the word using the shift key and the top row of the keyboard. That’s just lazy. If you’re thinking the word and you’re going to express it, then say it or write it out. If you don’t want to do that, well, it’s a big language. Use other words. We have a lot of them.
Which is why I love a play-it-safe substitute that works as well as the original phrase, if not better. Me, I’ve always loved the phrase “up to my ass in alligators.” It’s evocative, it’s alliterative, and it’s way too appropriate way too often, at least for me. But “up to my keister in crocodiles” is just as much all three of those things, enough that is sounds less like a hedge than a dialect.
Does the job wonderfully without getting me into a world of -—. (I would say “hurt” myself. RRB)
It is interesting how slang phrases come and go. I remember a high school textbook that showed a cartoon of a pretty girl with several men—dressed in styles of different decades—making comments such as “She’s the bee’s knees!” “She’s the cat’s pajamas!” “She’s boss!”More recently, I read a term in a Regency romance that was so evocative, it could be understood in any generation. It referred to a person getting suddenly angered at something, “taking umbrage” as it were. The phrase was “showing hackle” as in a dog raising it’s hackles to give warning that it was angry.
Veni Vidi Vici about 6 years ago
“A$$ deep in alligators!”
jpayne4040 about 6 years ago
It’s all uphill from here, kid!
Joseph McFarlane about 6 years ago
It’s alligators.
PoodleGroomer about 6 years ago
“Big plans. Small money.” translates universally.
COL Crash about 6 years ago
Actually he’s all three at once. Plus he still has to drain that swamp.
Yakety Sax about 6 years ago
He could also just be in hot water!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkMCMlVdUT8
beymly about 6 years ago
Or, “I’m better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.”
dennisodoyle about 6 years ago
And Caulfield, we really appreciated it!
russellc64 about 6 years ago
My standard answer is, “No idea. I just smile and nod my head a lot.”
Stephen Gilberg about 6 years ago
I’ve seen “up to my elbows in alligators.” By a guy who might not have known his @$$ from his elbow.
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] about 6 years ago
Frazz15 hrs ·
Language is amazing and baffling; taboo is just as amazing and sometimes more baffling. I totally get that there are some things you just don’t say, because language is even more powerful than it is amazing and baffling. What’s amusing is the playing it safe, like bleeps, or “the (first letter)-word,” or spelling out the word using the shift key and the top row of the keyboard. That’s just lazy. If you’re thinking the word and you’re going to express it, then say it or write it out. If you don’t want to do that, well, it’s a big language. Use other words. We have a lot of them.
Which is why I love a play-it-safe substitute that works as well as the original phrase, if not better. Me, I’ve always loved the phrase “up to my ass in alligators.” It’s evocative, it’s alliterative, and it’s way too appropriate way too often, at least for me. But “up to my keister in crocodiles” is just as much all three of those things, enough that is sounds less like a hedge than a dialect.
Does the job wonderfully without getting me into a world of -—. (I would say “hurt” myself. RRB)
DKHenderson 20 days ago
It is interesting how slang phrases come and go. I remember a high school textbook that showed a cartoon of a pretty girl with several men—dressed in styles of different decades—making comments such as “She’s the bee’s knees!” “She’s the cat’s pajamas!” “She’s boss!”More recently, I read a term in a Regency romance that was so evocative, it could be understood in any generation. It referred to a person getting suddenly angered at something, “taking umbrage” as it were. The phrase was “showing hackle” as in a dog raising it’s hackles to give warning that it was angry.