Best Thing I Learned This Week?

Comments

"He's trying to shit higher than his ass can reach."

That's the real goods.

on December 9, 2010 at 6:21 AM

My high school French teacher taught this to me 20 years ago. This is one of my favorite bits of wisdom from the French.

catballou on December 9, 2010 at 7:47 AM

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!

MichaelPgh on December 9, 2010 at 12:01 PM

@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.

So thanks for the new cat-whipper phrase!

gloomy gus on December 9, 2010 at 12:43 PM