I’ve quoted Anne Curzan, University of Michigan professor of English, repeatedly at LH (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, etc.); she’s sensible and well informed as well as a writer of wit and charm. Now I learn that she and public radio host Rebecca Kruth have a weekly radio segment called That’s What They Say, and it’s well worth your while — each episode is about five minutes long, and the time flies. Try this one on the pronunciation of “schism” or this one on insipid (apparently now sometimes used to mean simply ‘bad’), cut a check, and the past participle of chide (briefly discussed here in 2011).
Two items, each a tad flimsy to stand on its own:
Spanish estar de Rodríguez ‘the state of being left at home alone to work by one’s spouse (wife, typically) and children, while they go on vacation,’ discussed in detail here.
Goofy statements allegedly uttered by Viktor Chernomyrdin; the most famous is “Хотели как лучше, а получилось как всегда” [We wanted it to be as good as possible, but it turned out the same as always], but many of them gave me a chuckle, like “Нам нет необходимости наступать на те же грабли, что уже были” [We don’t need to step on the same rake that was already there]. If you know Russian, check it out.
Dept of Spooky Coincidences: I just finished reading Gary Shteyngart’s “Our Country Friends” (which I loved), and the expression We hoped for the best but it came out as usual was said by one of the characters in describing a phone app she had developed.
The phrase was new to me but I’m glad to know its origin. Although now I wonder what other easter eggs I may have missed in the novel.
Some of Chernomyrdin’s gems, with translations. Hopefully someone will add more (perhaps from the Russian page).
“por un lado lo frecuente que es este apellido en nuestro país, pero sobre todo la culpa la tuvo el cine de la época y más concretamente (según indican la mayoría de fuentes consultadas) la película, de 1965, protagonizada por José Luis López Vázquez que llevaba por título ‘El cálido verano del Sr. Rodríguez’ y dirigida por uno de los directores españoles más prolíficos de aquellos años: Pedro Lazaga, (con cerca de un centenar de films en su haber). En ella se relataba las aventuras de Pepe Rodríguez, un oficinista que debía quedarse trabajando durante el verano, mientras su mujer e hijos se marchaban de vacaciones a la playa.”
https://blogs.20minutos.es/yaestaellistoquetodolosabe/de-donde-surge-la-expresion-estar-de-rodriguez/
Maybe estar de Rodriguez is from a film:
“por un lado lo frecuente que es este apellido en nuestro país, pero sobre todo la culpa la tuvo el cine de la época y más concretamente (según indican la mayoría de fuentes consultadas) la película, de 1965, protagonizada por José Luis López Vázquez que llevaba por título ‘El cálido verano del Sr. Rodríguez’ y dirigida por uno de los directores españoles más prolíficos de aquellos años: Pedro Lazaga, (con cerca de un centenar de films en su haber). En ella se relataba las aventuras de Pepe Rodríguez, un oficinista que debía quedarse trabajando durante el verano, mientras su mujer e hijos se marchaban de vacaciones a la playa.”
https://blogs.20minutos.es/yaestaellistoquetodolosabe/de-donde-surge-la-expresion-estar-de-rodriguez/
Some of Chermomyrdin’s gems
“You can’t scare a woman with high-heeled shoes.”
While this is obviously falsifiable, and further research is needed, it seems very plausible on first principles.
Отродясь такого не бывало, и опять то же самое: I think we’ve all been there.
“You can’t scare a woman with high-heeled shoes.”
I can’t (on a quick google) find the original Russian for that. The English is ambiguous — and it seems leaning on the ambiguity would be too clever of a ruse for Chernomyrdin.
– A woman wearing high-heeled shoes can’t be scared.
– You can’t use high-heeled shoes as a threat to scare a woman.
Both seem very plausible meanings on first principles. I ain’t going to volunteer to pursue further research.
Was there any particular woman this was said of? Margaret Thatcher?
You, a man, can’t scare a woman while/by wearing high heeled shoes.
You cannot be the woman of a tall heel with a shoe scar.
(Russian syntax, go figure.)
Ah, the incomparable Thurber. Somehow I’d never read that one.
on the pronunciation of “schism”
Aha! I’m so up with the 98%, didn’t even know there’s another pronunciation. But there it is in my dead trees dictionary (1972). I suppose another word spelled ‘sch-‘ but not (always) pronounced sk- would be ‘schedule’.
Neither did I know there’s another past participle of ‘chide’; nor that it’s homophonous with a “vulgar term”. I think that term is only U.S. usage?
Hilarious! My comment (immediately above) “is awaiting moderation” — and I was so careful to avoid being explicit.
Here is the original Russian with context:
Напугали бабу туфлями. С приличным каблуком. Меня это не волнует.(О своей работе послом России на Украине).
https://juicyworld.org/chernomyrdin-chernomyrdinka/
One might query the authenticity of some of these it is hard to believe a leader would say this:
Вино нам нужно для здоровья. А здоровье нам нужно, чтобы пить водку.
Напугали бабу туфлями. С приличным каблуком.
That’s disappointing. It seems to be the exact opposite of the popular version. In view of the evident truth of the latter, Chernomyrdin would appear to be on the Wrong Side of History.
Вино нам нужно для здоровья. А здоровье нам нужно, чтобы пить водку.
Well, the latter part strikes me as unarguably true, at any rate. And the former has some evidence base.
One might query the authenticity of some of these
Well, duh. Say a couple of goofy things, and every goofy thing that gets said will be attributed to you. (See: Yogi Berra.)
Here it is – not the participle, but the past tense. NSFW text-wise (it’s not illustrated).
I like “It has never been like this and now it is exactly the same again” – plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?
Sr. Rodriguez would have been called græsenkemand in Danish, the male version of græsenke — cf. G Strohwitwe. (The change from being abandoned after a romp in the grass to having your spouse leave on vacation might be hard to predict, but understandable after the fact).
the male version of græsenke — cf. G Strohwitwe.
Strohwitwer is the male version.
I have a story about the word choad, from when I was a teenager at Boy Scout summer camp. It must have been when I was fourteen, since I worked at the camp during the summer I was fifteen.
My friend Trevor arrived arrived at our troop’s departure point, from which we would be driving up to Camp Pioneer in the Cascades, talking incessantly about his new favorite word: choad. (He used the “area between the anus and the penis” definition.) At camp, Trevor shared it with the nature area staff, where we were working on several merit badges. For one of them, we had to learn to identify at least ten kinds of local trees and shrubs. However, the staff wanted us to identify and name the species ourselves; only once we could identify them reliably would we be told their actual names. The first tree we named was the Douglas fir, dubbed the “evil scum tree.” The wild rhododendrons, Trevor named the “prickly choad hairs” bush, which was obscure enough that nobody objected. He next upped the ante by naming another conifer the “sweaty clit hairs” tree; I don’t recall if we were actually obliged to change our name, but the nature area aide told us that we were pretty unlikely to find any of those in the area.
which was obscure enough that nobody objected
…apparently choad is so obscure that it’s not among the five-letter words you can use as a Wordle guess. I’m slowly assembling a (small) collection of real five-letter English words that aren’t valid Wordle guesses, and with this word my list is now up to 24 words found.
(There’s a few recent slang terms, such as yoink, but most of the list is just the really obscure stuff. I try to exclude words such as Latin and April that probably were not included because they are not normally used in lowercase. Probably the biggest surprise so far was abjad, which I didn’t think was that obscure.)
Thre is an idiom
напугал/напугали ежа голой жопой
scared-PERF-SG/PL hedgehog-ACC bare-INSTR arse-INSTR
with a stress on “scared” rather than “arse”.
This pattern (fronting the perfective verb and stressing the first word. Actually there are other patterns with somewhat different intonation that imply something else, but listing all is not an option) implies irony. “you were overly optimistic when you thought you succeeded in scaring the hedgehog with your arse”.
The pronoun is usually omitted can be inserted. Then it (you, they, …) goes after the verb.
Chernomyrdin apparently said a variant (or an euphemism) of the idiom.
scared-PERF-PL woman(colloqual)-ACC shoes-INSTR.
And then for some reason added “On decent/proper heels”. “Proper” means sizeable, impressive, like this (we say “shoes on high heels). This addition is somewhat illogical, it implies that the heels are impressive while the first part means shoes are not impressive – but it is not anyhow funny.
“prickly choad hairs” bush, which was obscure enough that nobody objected. He next upped the ante by naming another conifer the “sweaty clit hairs”
Reminded me волосатое стекло “the hairy [furry?] glass”. A name of a band popular in 90s.
(it seems its leader played a role in an unknown to me movie звёздный ворс “star pile/nap”, a sci-fi comedy inspired by ideas of Cyrus Teed)
For those unfamiliar with Russian, the name of the movie plays on Star Wars (ворс [vors] = wars in a Russian accent).
Star Dreck
Raumschiff Entenscheiß
Late-80s children’s vocabulary along with David Hässlichdoof if I may update the spelling.