Just a space to chat about whatever’s on your mind. A virtual cafe, if you will. A place for Tangentialistas to gather together and “shoot the shit” (Where the hell did that expression come from?). This month, here’s the question to get things rolling: What’s your favorite weird expression in your native language? Last night, for example, the phrase “pussy footing” came up, which caused some confusion for our Russian friend.
Just heard a farmer on JRE say this... “it’s like pissin’ in your britches to stay warm.” Referring to short-sighted farming practices. Never heard that before. But pretty solid.
Nov 12, 2023·edited Nov 12, 2023Liked by Chris Ryan
Hi Chris, hi Community,
I have a question that's been troubling me for a while now. In nearly all of my past and present relationships, I seem to be coming to the same point with my partners (all cis male): Sooner or later they will all say things like "I want you to tell me what to do", "I really like when you take over", or straight ahead "I want you to dominate me". It starts freaking me out and I don't understand this. Where does that come from? I always ask my partners why exactly they want this, and am not getting any coherent answer. Has someone an explanation? Is that just lazyness, unwillingness to take responsibility for one's own life? Is that a result of people in our civilization lost for what is the right thing to do? Or am I missing something completely here? Because I could never imagine and would never except someone telling me what to do. I tend to find a request to dominate anyone really unattractive. Any thoughts on this?
Has anyone had a good “float tank” experience in the U.K.? I want to try it but I am of the perspective that not all float tank experiences are created equal...
“This that and the third” I use alot. Never researched the meaning but it basically means Etcetera. Even with that I tend to type “ETC ETC” rather than just the one “ETC”. I also use XYZ alot. “Talking Rhubarb” means talking crap. “How do you like them apples” meaning “how do you like the state of affairs now they are not in your favour?”
In Colombia, when someone has a wedgie (in English providing us great imagery), you would say, “se me metió el perro,” which literally translates to “the dog went in me.”
If your friend has a wedgie, you could advise them to “sácate el perro,” or “take out the dog.”
When I was studying in southern Spain, my local friend Carlos and I had many memorable exchanges about slang from our respective cultures. At one point he asked me:
"So it is bad to be 'Shit,' and it is bad to be 'Ain't Shit,' but it is good to be 'The Shit?'"
I worked in kitchens and on farms for years with mostly men from Mexico/Central America and whenever someone sneezed the response was, "Sancho," followed by laughter. I was told it basically means "some guy is in your bed having sex with your wife/girlfriend." I reckon the sneeze is how Sancho gets caught if you come home early and he is hiding in your closet.
The English phrase, "eat your heart out" has always intrigued me...
Not necessarily weird, but fun, in my native tongue of..."country"...phrases that you will hear from me from time to time:
"It's hotter than two rats fuckin' in a wool sock" - It's hot (self explanatory)
"Kentucky Windage" - A reference to a guy being able to shoot something from far away without any kind of scope, etc, because they understand the travel of the bullet, arc, conditions, etc. An old-school rifle master. I use it in business - "When will that deal close? Eh, if I were to Kentucky Windage it, I'd say two weeks from now, give or take a couple of days."
"That's the cat's ass!" - Something that's really good, cool, groovy, etc. Zero idea where this comes from.
"Pucker Factor" - Another ass-related saying...anything that causes you or someone else to take something seriously, shut up, etc. As in: "That dude walked in and everyone shut up...serious pucker factor."
"Good Kit" - Anyone from the military will understand what "Good Kit" is, and that can be from whatever your personal setup is on your armor/vest/rifle to the kitchen with proper knives and utensils.
Shoot the shit appears to be a variation of shoot the breeze. Both of these expressions mean “to chat idly just to pass the time.” A form of shoot the breeze is recorded in a poem written during World War I by a US private, who described his corporals as sociable men who were much better at “breeze-shooting” than fighting or doing actual work. It doesn’t require much skill or effort to hit the wind with a gun, so the expression goes.
Shoot the shit emerges in the 1940s, notably found in a letter by the author Norman Mailer. The shit, here, may be a more intensive and alliterative substitute for breeze, with shit meaning “stuff,” i.e., any old topic. Ever the shit-talker, the character Holden Caulfield used a milder take on the expression, shoot the crap, in J.D. Salinger’s 1951 The Catcher in the Rye.
Hello! So when I was hanging with my French friends we somehow were talking about are preferences on our partner's pubic landscape and in English we just say shaved but in french they say "sure la cuir" which translates to 'on the leather' and we got a chuckle out of it!
Hey Chris and fellow tangentialists. Loved reading the different phrases from your native language. Just wanted to give a quick rec for a new podcast I can't stop listening to. Rick Rubin has a new pod called "Tetragrammaton." It's similar to the "Broken Record" pod be does but this one goes even deeper as the episodes are much longer. He's had on interesting guests like Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Whitney Cummings. Highly recommend giving it a listen 🤙
On the 1st of a month there is a UK school-yard tradition (in some places at least), of catching a mate first with the words, and gentle actions of; "A pinch and a punch on the the first of the month", generally delivered on the arm. The mate would then be flat footed and try and get even next month!
In Eastern Canada, you sometimes hear the phrase "fill your boots" i.e. "Sure, have as much as you want". I just looked it up and there are a few theories about its origin. Since we are on the ocean, I'm going with sailors filling their boots with rum for drinking!
Instead of a polite response like "I dont know" when you simply, do not know. In Australia we've added some profanities. We say "fucks me" or "fucked if I know"
Not my native tongue really but I have always liked the Australian phrase “We don’t fuck with spiders” indicating a subject that should not be breached.
Chris (and all), what do you think of the below article on monogamy from Scientific America? It has been so many years since I read Sex at Dawn that I was struggling to make an argument to my friend who posed this piece to me.
Here's a strange one: In the US, people will often say, "I could care less," about something they really don't care about. What they MEAN is, "I couldn't care less," but the negative got lost somewhere, so they're essentially saying the opposite of what they think they're saying!
Don’t know current Italian slang because I left a long time ago, but have a some forty-something male friends from Rome who, to say that someone/something is obnoxious, would use the expression “they are a finger in the ass” (“un dito ar culo” in roman dialect). Which always leads me to ask “are you sure you wouldn’t like a finger up your ass? Have you ever tried?” or, when I am in my pro-finger activist mode, to cry “stop criticizing fingers in the ass!!”
In Puerto Rico we say "Se fue con los Panchos" (he/she/it went with the Panchos) when someone dies or when something is no more. When hearing me saying it, most Americans ask, "and who is this Panchos?"
I loved when you mentioned what they say in Spain (a few eps ago), "Me cago en la madre...). We got that from them and we kind of use it for anything. Spanish people seem love to shit on a lot of things, and they passed that tradition to us to add some Caribbean flavor. lol
- Did it hurt? "Me cago en la madre del diablo!" (I shit on the Devil's mom).
- Did you have a really bad experience? "Me cago en la crica de Marta!". (I shit on Martha's pussy)
- Was it something good? "Me cago en la madre, que rico!" (I shit on the mom, it was sooo good!).
Looking forward to read other cool and weird expressions. Thanks for sharing. Saludos!
Shoot the shit has a ring because of alliteration, obviously. It's low-intellectual-value casual chitchat that's just fun to do.
Hmmm, there are so many weird expressions ("pussy-footing" seems very clear to me). They're just hard to summon on cue.
Plenty of expressions are used in a misunderstood way. "Cut & run", for example, supposedly cowardly. But it comes from cutting your anchor chain in an emergency — an eminently sane move.
A weird one in French is to "drown the fish", meaning (as far as I can make out) to puff out a smokescreen of irrelevant detail so as to avoid dealing directly with a touchy subject. God knows what its origin is.
I just read "A propos of nothing", Woody Allen's autobiography. Was never a Huge fan of his, but like some of his stuff & recognize his stunning range of talents. He's admirably modest about his success in a search-me sort of way.
Inevitably the Mia Farrow business is given significant space. It really shows what herd animals humans are, how averse we are to the facts when our emotions dictate something else.
Ha! growing up when playing rock, paper scissors, we used to say; ching, chong cha! I used this expression with my students, 11 year olds ( many of them being Korean) and was told I was racist. It was more funny, no one was offended, but it was an interesting situation to be in. My dad used to say " Bite the bullet" alot. referring to having to do something I don't like.
New release from Andre 3000! Fantastic interview as well.
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/14/1212661071/andre-3000-album
https://open.spotify.com/album/33Ek6daAL3oXyQIV1uoItD?si=t7O6khdJSFWZyFzd1IWeNw
Hey Chris, are you doing the book club this month?
Just heard a farmer on JRE say this... “it’s like pissin’ in your britches to stay warm.” Referring to short-sighted farming practices. Never heard that before. But pretty solid.
Hi Chris, hi Community,
I have a question that's been troubling me for a while now. In nearly all of my past and present relationships, I seem to be coming to the same point with my partners (all cis male): Sooner or later they will all say things like "I want you to tell me what to do", "I really like when you take over", or straight ahead "I want you to dominate me". It starts freaking me out and I don't understand this. Where does that come from? I always ask my partners why exactly they want this, and am not getting any coherent answer. Has someone an explanation? Is that just lazyness, unwillingness to take responsibility for one's own life? Is that a result of people in our civilization lost for what is the right thing to do? Or am I missing something completely here? Because I could never imagine and would never except someone telling me what to do. I tend to find a request to dominate anyone really unattractive. Any thoughts on this?
olivia rants in a way sexier way than uncle chris the societal torture chaimber that is ‘youth’:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6SRsiMl7w1USE4mFqrOhHC?si=N8UyClTURb-qK3XanHIKIg
Has anyone had a good “float tank” experience in the U.K.? I want to try it but I am of the perspective that not all float tank experiences are created equal...
“This that and the third” I use alot. Never researched the meaning but it basically means Etcetera. Even with that I tend to type “ETC ETC” rather than just the one “ETC”. I also use XYZ alot. “Talking Rhubarb” means talking crap. “How do you like them apples” meaning “how do you like the state of affairs now they are not in your favour?”
In Colombia, when someone has a wedgie (in English providing us great imagery), you would say, “se me metió el perro,” which literally translates to “the dog went in me.”
If your friend has a wedgie, you could advise them to “sácate el perro,” or “take out the dog.”
BTW, here's an article from the New York Times about Crestone. It's a free article, so no paywall.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/us/colorado-funeral-pyre.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8Ew.3eFM._uwAWfZ0YE2V&smid=url-share
Australia, and Britain I believe, “we’re not here to duck spiders.”
I always wondered where "Its colder than a witches titty...'' came from. apparently its even colder when it's in a brass bra or a tin can"
When I was studying in southern Spain, my local friend Carlos and I had many memorable exchanges about slang from our respective cultures. At one point he asked me:
"So it is bad to be 'Shit,' and it is bad to be 'Ain't Shit,' but it is good to be 'The Shit?'"
I worked in kitchens and on farms for years with mostly men from Mexico/Central America and whenever someone sneezed the response was, "Sancho," followed by laughter. I was told it basically means "some guy is in your bed having sex with your wife/girlfriend." I reckon the sneeze is how Sancho gets caught if you come home early and he is hiding in your closet.
The English phrase, "eat your heart out" has always intrigued me...
Not necessarily weird, but fun, in my native tongue of..."country"...phrases that you will hear from me from time to time:
"It's hotter than two rats fuckin' in a wool sock" - It's hot (self explanatory)
"Kentucky Windage" - A reference to a guy being able to shoot something from far away without any kind of scope, etc, because they understand the travel of the bullet, arc, conditions, etc. An old-school rifle master. I use it in business - "When will that deal close? Eh, if I were to Kentucky Windage it, I'd say two weeks from now, give or take a couple of days."
"That's the cat's ass!" - Something that's really good, cool, groovy, etc. Zero idea where this comes from.
"Pucker Factor" - Another ass-related saying...anything that causes you or someone else to take something seriously, shut up, etc. As in: "That dude walked in and everyone shut up...serious pucker factor."
"Good Kit" - Anyone from the military will understand what "Good Kit" is, and that can be from whatever your personal setup is on your armor/vest/rifle to the kitchen with proper knives and utensils.
Shoot the shit appears to be a variation of shoot the breeze. Both of these expressions mean “to chat idly just to pass the time.” A form of shoot the breeze is recorded in a poem written during World War I by a US private, who described his corporals as sociable men who were much better at “breeze-shooting” than fighting or doing actual work. It doesn’t require much skill or effort to hit the wind with a gun, so the expression goes.
Shoot the shit emerges in the 1940s, notably found in a letter by the author Norman Mailer. The shit, here, may be a more intensive and alliterative substitute for breeze, with shit meaning “stuff,” i.e., any old topic. Ever the shit-talker, the character Holden Caulfield used a milder take on the expression, shoot the crap, in J.D. Salinger’s 1951 The Catcher in the Rye.
<https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/shoot-the-shit/#>
Hello! So when I was hanging with my French friends we somehow were talking about are preferences on our partner's pubic landscape and in English we just say shaved but in french they say "sure la cuir" which translates to 'on the leather' and we got a chuckle out of it!
Some funny translations to them also!
Anyone else find that between two languages!?
Hey Chris and fellow tangentialists. Loved reading the different phrases from your native language. Just wanted to give a quick rec for a new podcast I can't stop listening to. Rick Rubin has a new pod called "Tetragrammaton." It's similar to the "Broken Record" pod be does but this one goes even deeper as the episodes are much longer. He's had on interesting guests like Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Whitney Cummings. Highly recommend giving it a listen 🤙
“Bless your heart” is a disgustingly sweet insult by a southerner to let you know they disagree with your opinion.
On the 1st of a month there is a UK school-yard tradition (in some places at least), of catching a mate first with the words, and gentle actions of; "A pinch and a punch on the the first of the month", generally delivered on the arm. The mate would then be flat footed and try and get even next month!
In Eastern Canada, you sometimes hear the phrase "fill your boots" i.e. "Sure, have as much as you want". I just looked it up and there are a few theories about its origin. Since we are on the ocean, I'm going with sailors filling their boots with rum for drinking!
Instead of a polite response like "I dont know" when you simply, do not know. In Australia we've added some profanities. We say "fucks me" or "fucked if I know"
Not my native tongue really but I have always liked the Australian phrase “We don’t fuck with spiders” indicating a subject that should not be breached.
Chris (and all), what do you think of the below article on monogamy from Scientific America? It has been so many years since I read Sex at Dawn that I was struggling to make an argument to my friend who posed this piece to me.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-secret-evolutionary-weapon-monogamy/
Here's a strange one: In the US, people will often say, "I could care less," about something they really don't care about. What they MEAN is, "I couldn't care less," but the negative got lost somewhere, so they're essentially saying the opposite of what they think they're saying!
In Germany we say: „Geh dahin wo der Pfeffer wächst!“
The literal translation would be: „Go to where the pepper is growing!“
It refers to India, which used to be the place that was considered to be the end of the known world, during the time the saying was created.
You say that when you wish someone to go far away and not come back. If you’re arguing for example.
Not very productive, I know.
Another funny expression is: „doppelt gemoppelt“, which refers to something being expressed twice, in a redundant way.
„I myself“ would be an expression which is „doppelt gemoppelt“.
Have fun!
Greets from Hamburg
Felix
What is pussy footing? Confused, too.
Don’t know current Italian slang because I left a long time ago, but have a some forty-something male friends from Rome who, to say that someone/something is obnoxious, would use the expression “they are a finger in the ass” (“un dito ar culo” in roman dialect). Which always leads me to ask “are you sure you wouldn’t like a finger up your ass? Have you ever tried?” or, when I am in my pro-finger activist mode, to cry “stop criticizing fingers in the ass!!”
In Puerto Rico we say "Se fue con los Panchos" (he/she/it went with the Panchos) when someone dies or when something is no more. When hearing me saying it, most Americans ask, "and who is this Panchos?"
I loved when you mentioned what they say in Spain (a few eps ago), "Me cago en la madre...). We got that from them and we kind of use it for anything. Spanish people seem love to shit on a lot of things, and they passed that tradition to us to add some Caribbean flavor. lol
- Did it hurt? "Me cago en la madre del diablo!" (I shit on the Devil's mom).
- Did you have a really bad experience? "Me cago en la crica de Marta!". (I shit on Martha's pussy)
- Was it something good? "Me cago en la madre, que rico!" (I shit on the mom, it was sooo good!).
Looking forward to read other cool and weird expressions. Thanks for sharing. Saludos!
Shoot the shit has a ring because of alliteration, obviously. It's low-intellectual-value casual chitchat that's just fun to do.
Hmmm, there are so many weird expressions ("pussy-footing" seems very clear to me). They're just hard to summon on cue.
Plenty of expressions are used in a misunderstood way. "Cut & run", for example, supposedly cowardly. But it comes from cutting your anchor chain in an emergency — an eminently sane move.
A weird one in French is to "drown the fish", meaning (as far as I can make out) to puff out a smokescreen of irrelevant detail so as to avoid dealing directly with a touchy subject. God knows what its origin is.
I just read "A propos of nothing", Woody Allen's autobiography. Was never a Huge fan of his, but like some of his stuff & recognize his stunning range of talents. He's admirably modest about his success in a search-me sort of way.
Inevitably the Mia Farrow business is given significant space. It really shows what herd animals humans are, how averse we are to the facts when our emotions dictate something else.
Ha! growing up when playing rock, paper scissors, we used to say; ching, chong cha! I used this expression with my students, 11 year olds ( many of them being Korean) and was told I was racist. It was more funny, no one was offended, but it was an interesting situation to be in. My dad used to say " Bite the bullet" alot. referring to having to do something I don't like.