here's another one for you: the expression "splitting hairs" in English has a colorful French equivalent: "l'enculage des mouches", literally "fucking flies in the ass".
Wait! one more: "I have other fish to fry" is translated into French as "j'ai d'autres chats à fouetter", literally "I have other cats to whip." Those wacky French people!
@3, among other vintage adventure stories I read as a boy, Ian Fleming's Casino Royal taught me the phrase "mais n'enculons pas des mouches", which Bond explained was a vulgar way of saying "let's not split hairs" . Not until this year did I realize what the literal translation was.
That's the real goods.
Wait! one more: "I have other fish to fry" is translated into French as "j'ai d'autres chats à fouetter", literally "I have other cats to whip." Those wacky French people!
So thanks for the new cat-whipper phrase!