Jan 26 2007

Linda’s All-Purpose Phrase

Published by MsQ at 10:50 am under QMusements, South Africa, Tales From The Road

Linda Erlank spoke English well. You know someone has command of a language if they can litter their conversation with the latest idiomatic expressions.

Most everyone in the Western Cape area spoke both English and Afrikaans with the exception of Cape Town where English was the standard. Usually everyone spoke English around me but would sometimes lapse into Afrikaans.

Laverne and Shirley speak fluent English. There may be the odd misstep, as when Laverne was taking that photo of me drinking a beer, and instructed me to “Make sex with the camera.”

Shirley and I both looked at her in puzzlement for a moment before we busted up laughing with, “Oh…you mean make love to the camera!”

Now we never make love to the camera. We always make sex with it.

A great vacation produces catch phrases – expressions that take everyone back to their moment of creation. More than inside jokes, they are inside moments.

Linda was great with the idiomatic expressions. She also didn’t dance around issues. This made for some interesting and generally highly amusing conversations.

Linda had an all-purpose expression. She used it to describe anything weird or unusual or that she didn’t like.

Examples:

Pizza with tofu: “That is freaky shit.”
Men in Speedos: “That is freaky shit.”
Freakin’ Big Caterpillar: “That is freaky shit.”

As you can see, “That is freaky shit” is an excellent all-purpose phrase.

The rest of us picked up on it immediately.

You’ll find it comes in handy for more situations than you’d think.

A manager asks you to come in for the third weekend in a row.

Your response: That is Freaky Shit.

2 responses so far

2 Responses to “Linda’s All-Purpose Phrase”

  1. # Laverneon 27 Jan 2007 at 12:39 am

    LOL
    I never thought of using the phrase when responding to a manager, but yes most definitely, it will work.

    I have been using DR’s expression “right” of course covered with the applicable for the moment, emotional sous. However there would be the moments where Linda’s expression would fit better than the emotionally soused “right”.

  2. # MsQon 27 Jan 2007 at 1:15 am

    Hi, Laverne! Yes, your sister’s phrase is amazingly useful. DR’s “right” is much more subtle. Which means that you can feign innocence!

    For example:

    “I am master of the Universe!”: riiigght.

    “Are you making fun of me?” : Not at all. I agreed with you.

    “That is Freaky Shit” is not subtle.

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