Obsolete Sayings

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
21

Actually I did mean "whistling up the wrong tree". It's an in-joke that only maybe one other guy on the forum will appreciate. We used to work with a guy who would not only mix his metaphors, but also make up entirely new ones. The whole quote, delivered in the middle of a departmental meeting, went "you're whistling up the wrong tree - there's no dog up there"

We still don't know what he was talking about.

22
I'm chuffed to have started one off in my old home town that's (apparently) still doing the rounds. I tried explaining it to my lab mates earlier and they don't get it as they'd never heard of Ultravox or 'Vienna'.

Whenever someone says something that completely loses me, I just 'sorry, I've got Vienna Syndrome' (think of the chorus)...

23
"Back to square 1" is still used and understood during a football commentary eventhough it's meaning (a few decades ago, the Radio Times devised a system of squares to give a more precise idea where the play took part on the pitch and it was used by BBC commentators).

I like recycling old words or expressions, see my usage of the word "chap" which is awfully quaint...

24
It's great when that happens.

I was involved in something similar. A few of us started using the expression "Petrocelli!" when somebody would inadvertently bring something up in conversation that had already been discussed. The reason is outlined here

We also used to use the expression "Barrymac" when we'd see someone who obviously had a wig on

25
Not that old-fashioned, old chap:

http://www.thechap.net/

nice!

26
There is one saying i know the origins of........

Doing a Beatrice

It's not wide spread though.

27
Heard of "the cats whiskers", and the "bee's knee's", but why on earth is "The dogs bollocks" a good thing?

28
Good question! Does the fact that the dog is capable of reaching them with its own tongue bear some relation to this?

29
Bollocks

Why does a dog lick it's bollocks... because it can...?

30
You missed 'the badger's nadgers'

31
Jolly good publication that, I have the odd copy at home, I have great respect for their manifesto and can see myself become a chapist one day

32
Always thought it came from board games like snakes and ladders (am I showing my age now?)

33
I caught it on the "local" version / type of CNN yesterday at lunch (New England news channel), so I was not expecting to read a post concerning it on here! Oh well. I'll be back in Switzerland soon enough *groans*.