Sayings That Don't Make Sense Anymore

[SoonerofAlabama]

I was just watching TV and someone said, "I imagine these things selling like Hot cakes." Who buys hot cakes? Anyways, I started to think of other sayings that don't make sense anymore. For example:

Head over heels (Head already over feet)

I could care less (Should be couldn't, right?)

Clean as a whistle (Just don't understand)

The whole nine yards (Just don't understand)

-Anyone have anymore? Can anyone tell me the meanings of these?

[okie52]

Can't have your cake and eat it too

[jk the sooner fan]

"the sun sure is bright today"

well no **** - its bright everyday

[olevetonahill]

I was just watching TV and someone said, "I imagine these things selling like Hot cakes." Who buys hot cakes? Anyways, I started to think of other sayings that don't make sense anymore. For example:Never been to an IHOP huh?

Head over heels (Head already over feet)As in getting Knocked for a loop. Ya know Hit so hard ya flip?

I could care less (Should be couldn't, right?) Yup

Clean as a whistle (Just don't understand) No dust in a whistle cause its all blowed out

The whole nine yards (Just don't understand) In congressional testimony given in 1942, Admiral Emory Land referred to the nine shipyards used to produce Liberty ships as "the whole nine yards".


-Anyone have anymore? Can anyone tell me the meanings of these?

Anything else I can clear up?:D

[StoopTroup]

BBE_kpAfFmA&feature=fvwrel

[cccasooner2]

Anything else I can clear up?:D

Bravo.

http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/GifGuide/clapping/busey_clapping.gif

[olevetonahill]

:D

[StoopTroup]

Damn good deal!

http://my.highschooljournalism.org/Portals/2/Schools/1573/Article291209_inglourious_basterds_02-535x356.jpg
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/20/arts/basterdsAB.jpg

[SoonerofAlabama]

Anything else I can clear up?:D

Wow, well I just got dissed. :O

[CrimsonKel]

The phrase "here's a quarter call someone who cares" doesn't make sense anymore for obvious reasons.

[olevetonahill]

Wow, well I just got dissed. :O


Not Dissed, Educated ;) :D



The phrase "here's a quarter call someone who cares" doesn't make sense anymore for obvious reasons.

Yea , Find a Pay phone, There are still some around but not many

[Soonerfan88]

The phrase "here's a quarter call someone who cares" doesn't make sense anymore for obvious reasons.

Even more out of date - "It's your nickel."

[ouwasp]

"If we can put a man on the moon..."

Not anymore. Not for a long time.

[olevetonahill]

Even more out of date - "It's your nickel."

Heh :D

[Jammin']

Not Dissed, Educated ;) :D




Yea , Find a Pay phone, There are still some around but not many


Finding one that works for only a quarter will be the really difficult part.

[StoopTroup]

I bet we could put a man on the Moon tomorrow.

He might be taking a one-way trip but....

[Turd_Ferguson]

In congressional testimony given in 1942, Admiral Emory Land referred to the nine shipyards used to produce Liberty ships as "the whole nine yards".

Anything else I can clear up?:D I had read that the "whole nine yards" thing was from WWII pilots. The belt of rounds that was fed into the planes machine guns were 27ft long. When talking about mission targets, pilot's were commonly heard saying "I gave'm the whole nine yards"...

[SicEmBaylor]

#2 onthat list is a major pet peeve of mine.

[StoopTroup]

#2 onthat list is a major pet peeve of mine.

Does it give you a bone to pick with someone? :D

[SicEmBaylor]

Does it give you a bone to pick with someone? :D

Oh God that reminds me of something. My grandmother transposes that expression "they make no bones about it" with the saying "they don't beat around the bush." But when she says it, it comes out as "He/She don't beat any boners about it."

I **** you not and I wish I was kidding.

[Jacie]

The cat's out of the bagel now . . .

[Turd_Ferguson]

fair to middling

Actually, it makes sense....just always thought it sounded goofy...

[texaspokieokie]

#2 onthat list is a major pet peeve of mine.

i prefer "i could care less", even if it's wrong.

[cccasooner2]

The cat's out of the bagel now . . .

Us gentiles have a similar saying but use a bag instead. Bagels might be used as a floating device by those darn cats.

[StoopTroup]

"Head on a Platter" I'd avoid using that one at Work.

[yermom]

Oh God that reminds me of something. My grandmother transposes that expression "they make no bones about it" with the saying "they don't beat around the bush." But when she says it, it comes out as "He/She don't beat any boners about it."

I **** you not and I wish I was kidding.

apparently one side of my family hasn't heard the other usage of "fingered" and will commonly use that verb in reference to touching something or administering the bird

so for multiple reasons, the story of my old college roommate "fingering" an older female member of my family in a parking lot is quite entertaining

[3rdgensooner]

pantywaist

[yermom]

that fits better than most of the original list :D

[StoopTroup]

Shall we dub Dean "The Marquis of Granby" today?

"Go Bald-headed" - Act impetuously without restraint. Dude started a charge without even putting on his hat for God's Sake!

http://www.artchive.com/web_gallery/reproductions/201001-201500/201149/size3.jpg

[StoopTroup]

''Go off half-cocked'' sounds pretty painful

http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/lorenabobby.jpg

[OU Adonis]

nm

[Frozen Sooner]

Huh. Someone in the construction trades told me "whole nine yards" comes from how concrete is sold in big lots. No support for that online though.

[StoopTroup]

Little White Lie - We're a diversified bunch now....lot's more than the Whites are lying. Right now the focus is on Weiners.

[soonerinabilene]

Thats a haircut you can set your watch to.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I never really understood, "You can cook a kitten in the oven but that don't make it a biscuit."

[stoopified]

Team on the rise

[SicEmBaylor]

"4-year degree program."

[stoopified]

Hook em horns

[GDC]

"bar ditch"

"I wouldn't pay (x amount of money) to watch a **** ant eat a bale of hay."

[sappstuf]

Another day another dollar..

[MR2-Sooner86]

Hold your horses.

Sounds like a broken record.

[sheepdogs]

The Hard Rock Hotel commercials use the term "steamed with awesomeness" and I have still yet to figure what in the hell it means.

[texaspokieokie]

My Mother & others used to say; "i want you to know".

i mostly never wanted to know whatever it was.

[yermom]

"4-year degree program."

:O

[soonerloyal]

"The best thing since sliced bread".
"Mad as a hatter".
"Not worth a tinker's dam".


I never could get my kids' minds wrapped around some of those.

Oh yeah..."Party like it's 1999."

[delhalew]

I never really understood, "You can cook a kitten in the oven but that don't make it a biscuit."

I've never heard that, but I like it. It's right in line with "you can't polish a turd", and "if your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle".

[SpankyNek]

"He's happier than a dutch boy at Lilith Fair"

"That'll make your babies born naked"

[GDC]

top notch

23 skiddoo

a pig in a poke

two bits or four bits

[REDREX]

Change We Can Believe In

[salth2o]

Change We Can Believe In

FTW!

[cccasooner2]

Has anyone ever actually dodged a bullet?

[hawaii 5-0]

I'm gonna keep "Boy Howdy !" Thank you.

I'm also prone to "Well, Heck !"



5-0



Trump/ Scamp 2012

[GDC]

Fiddle sticks!

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Has anyone ever actually dodged a bullet?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SWF9i3Vzpac/TM24lFuu0HI/AAAAAAAAA-g/KwYXzbQnaqA/s1600/Neo+dodges+the+bullet.gif

[OUMallen]

Mind your P's and Q's.

[olevetonahill]

A 2 bit whore.

Like the Pay phone Just try an find one.;)

[cccasooner2]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SWF9i3Vzpac/TM24lFuu0HI/AAAAAAAAA-g/KwYXzbQnaqA/s1600/Neo+dodges+the+bullet.gif

That was the AMC clip that cued my post. :D

[KantoSooner]

Independent as a hog on ice.


and, for all us Okies: "Don't make me no never mind." Though, strangely, you know exactly what the speaker means when you hear it.

[OhU1]

A stitch in time saves nine.

"half past the hour"

balls to the wall.

[OhU1]

We're Texas.

Don't mess with Texas.

Let me answer that for Chris

[delhalew]

Under God?

[OhU1]

Godspeed

Drunk as Cooter Brown.

[Mississippi Sooner]

Oh God that reminds me of something. My grandmother transposes that expression "they make no bones about it" with the saying "they don't beat around the bush." But when she says it, it comes out as "He/She don't beat any boners about it."

I **** you not and I wish I was kidding.

Since I've lived in Mississippi I've found that lots of people do that kind of thing down here. Some of them really crack me up. Two of my favorites are:

He's sh!t up a tree.

and

He don't know **** from shallow water.
Now, I know this is a badly mangled form of "He don't know **** from Shinola," Shinola once being a popular brand of shoe polish, but the first time I heard it I had to ask the guy what it meant. He looked at me as if I was a moron and said, "well, he could be standing in shallow water and think he was standing in ****."

Ok, then.

[OUMallen]

"86" the whatever, like leave it out.

[OutlandTrophy]

86 is some restaurant term that I never learned of its origin

[SoonerofAlabama]

Mind your P's and Q's.

I actually figured out what this one meant. It's mind your Pints and Quarts. Basically, don't get drunk in the bar and realize that you don't have enough money to pay for the drinks.

[Jammin']

Not a saying but this weekend we were at my in-laws and their home phone rang. My youngest boy ask me, "What is that noise?".

[Mississippi Sooner]

Not a saying but this weekend we were at my in-laws and their home phone rang. My youngest boy ask me, "What is that noise?".

Up until about a dozen years ago I still had an old fashioned rotary dial phone in my house. One day some friends came over with their little boy who was about 9 or 10, I believe. He kept staring at that phone and then finally asked his mother, in a very quiet voice, "mom, what is that thing?" She answered, "that's a telephone." Then the little boy asked, "well, how does it work."

I thought it was hilarious.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Damn good deal!

http://my.highschooljournalism.org/Portals/2/Schools/1573/Article291209_inglourious_basterds_02-535x356.jpg
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/20/arts/basterdsAB.jpg
I watch this movie on an international flight. Did I miss much?

It was better than I expected.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Under God?

Apparently to NBC...:(

[texaspokieokie]

spent some time in AR when i was young; those kids would say, when referring to some one who was mad, "he's gonna **** down both legs".

[cccasooner2]

Up until about a dozen years ago I still had an old fashioned rotary dial phone in my house. One day some friends came over with their little boy who was about 9 or 10, I believe. He kept staring at that phone and then finally asked his mother, in a very quiet voice, "mom, what is that thing?" She answered, "that's a telephone." Then the little boy asked, "well, how does it work."

I thought it was hilarious.

Not a "saying" but a question we don't have to answer anymore: "Number please?"

BTW, my childhood home phone number was 340 (in its entirety). :)

[Cheez-It]

"Here's a quarter. Call somone who cares."

[jk the sooner fan]

"six on one hand, half a dozen on the other"

this saying NEVER made sense - there is clearly only five on one hand, and one less than half a dozen on the other

[Jammin']

"six on one hand, half a dozen on the other"

this saying NEVER made sense - there is clearly only five on one hand, and one less than half a dozen on the other

I always heard that as "Six of one, half dozen of another" meaning it doesn't matter which you pick, you'll get the same basic thing.

[3rdgensooner]

phone book

[pphilfran]

Roll down the car window...like there is now a crank to turn...

[Turd_Ferguson]

Roll down the car window...like there is now a crank to turn...Oh believe me, there is. A company I worked for in 09 bought brand new F250 super cab diesels for all the construction managers. Those POS's had crank down windows and manual locks and the driver door was the only one that had a key hole to unlock it...HTF you gonna make a brand new truck with **** like that in it?

[pphilfran]

Oh believe me, there is. A company I worked for in 09 bought brand new F250 super cab diesels for all the construction managers. Those POS's had crank down windows and manual locks and the driver door was the only one that had a key hole to unlock it...HTF you gonna make a brand new truck with **** like that in it?

All my business trucks have roll down windows...most passenger cars, though, are electric...

[BoomerJack]

"A nickle isn't worth a dime anymore." This is a "Yogism". It doesn't make sense; but it really does.

A previous post mentioned "mad as a hatter". I understand that in 18th & 19th centuries, hatmakers would use a combination of toxic products to shape or form hats. Their constant exposure to them and inhalation of their fumes would cause them brain damage a symptom of which was insanity or "madness".

[KantoSooner]

Rotgut Whisky

Corpses used to be preserved in a variety of fluids, one of which was cheap whisky. Medical students, as eager then as now to drink like fish, would siphon off some of the preservative to get a free drink.

[OUDoc]

balls to the wall.

The phrase may come from the days of stationary steam engines. The governor on these engines consisted of two iron balls mounted on a rotating pivot that was geared to the engine. This pivot was connected to the steam valve that acted as the throttle. As the engine's speed increased, centrifugal force caused the balls to move outward on the pivots causing the valve to close and slow the motor down. Conversely, if the engine slowed down, the balls dropped lower, which opened the throttle. If the engine was running at maximum speed, the balls would not be "to the wall" per se, but they would be at their maximum extension or "running balls out".

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/balls_to_the_wall

This is what I had always heard.


BTW-

B_3TlrZLpQ0

[OhU1]

The phrase may come from the days of stationary steam engines. The governor on these engines consisted of two iron balls mounted on a rotating pivot that was geared to the engine. This pivot was connected to the steam valve that acted as the throttle. As the engine's speed increased, centrifugal force caused the balls to move outward on the pivots causing the valve to close and slow the motor down. Conversely, if the engine slowed down, the balls dropped lower, which opened the throttle. If the engine was running at maximum speed, the balls would not be "to the wall" per se, but they would be at their maximum extension or "running balls out".

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/balls_to_the_wall

This is what I had always heard.


BTW-

B_3TlrZLpQ0


I watch Modern Marvels on the History channel regularly. Jay Leno was on a recent re-run about "the wonders of steam" (which may be what your Youtube link is but I can't look it up from work). He discussed "Balls to the wall" and "balls out".

It's interesting how many saying we still use where the original meaning is archaic and not relatable to anything in modern life.

[65Mustang]

Huh. Someone in the construction trades told me "whole nine yards" comes from how concrete is sold in big lots. No support for that online though.
It comes from WW2.
50 cal ammo belts on ww2 aircraft were 27 feet long.
A busy sortie would use up the 'whole 9 yards'

[texaspokieokie]

most stupid saying "Go figure" !!!

[imjebus]

Shaking like a dog crapping a peach sead....

[stoopified]

Snafu- acronym for stuation normal all fuucqued up
Fubar- Fucqed up beyond all recognition

[OhU1]

Madder than a wet hen.

Actually most country sayings do not make sense to a suburb/city boy like me.

[Mississippi Sooner]

Two of my favorites:

He's a big turd in a small bowl.

and

I feel like hammered **** in a burlap bag.

[SpankyNek]

Be there in two shakes of a lambs tail.

[stoopified]

Madder than a wet hen.

Actually most country sayings do not make sense to a suburb/city boy like me.I'm guessing you would be just as baffled by the expression running arounf like a chicken with it's head cut off.I only actually witnessed this once as a small child.A friend's mother cutthe head offa live chicken and it ran around the yard for a few seconds before it died.

[CobraKai]

Wonder how many people any more can visualize the expression "like a broken record.". My kids probably think that is a stupid meaningless phrase. Doubt they would even recognize what a cassette is.

[CobraKai]

"A nickle isn't worth a dime anymore." This is a "Yogism". It doesn't make sense; but it really does.

A previous post mentioned "mad as a hatter". I understand that in 18th & 19th centuries, hatmakers would use a combination of toxic products to shape or form hats. Their constant exposure to them and inhalation of their fumes would cause them brain damage a symptom of which was insanity or "madness".

Correct. Hatters used mercury in the felting process and typically suffered the effects of heavy metal poisoning.

[stoopified]

I'm your hucklebeery.The only place I have ever heard this is in TOMBSTONE.

I swan- my grandmother used this one because they were taught it was wrong to say I swear.