What I'm interested in this week are the various colourful expressions for madness in the languages we all speak between us. I'll kick off with my favourite "two prawns short of a cocktail". Got any others....?
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Donds? Dondling? A Dondle?
The Greatest (Music Lists) Book Ever Written!
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27 comments:
Kangeroos in the top paddock
From Down under presumably. Knew I could count on you, Blimpy, sah!!! BTW if you don't listen to the list - just click through and listen to the Sinclair track - portrait of a madman - did insanity ever sound so frikkin' funky?
... not the full shilling ... mad as a box of frogs [oops!] ... a butty short of a picnic ...
My favourite is a slanderous one I won't repeat about a certain football manager (known round here as Demento) and half-time team talks.
You mean Lord Wrigley's hairdryer?
Out to lunch
Playing with the fairies
Not sure if it was close enough to you geographically, fp, but a common euphemism for mental illness in the Blyth of my youth was 'tek him to St George's' or 'you'll hev us sent to Morpeth', where the former Northumberland County Lunatic Asylum was situated.
Can't think of any suitable aphorisms, as I'm suddenly overcome by tiredness, at long last...
Loved Sinclair btw and an overall top playlist (though Under Attack was an example of going out with a whimper and not with a bang, in my humble opinion).
SM
Morning moi luvlies. There's a good German one too which Nilpferd will know - 'er hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank' - not got all his cups in the cupboard. And they also talk about having Dachschaden - roof damage. Got any Portuguese ones - Ejay? Or indeed French - just realised I can't think of any...
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Scary - I do indeed know those places - though not from the inside! There's one from round our way - the local institution was in Prudhoe. My poor dad really got scalped at the hairdressers one day - too short above the ears - and it became known as the 'Prudhoe cut'. Cheers for listening to the list - I might actually try re-jigging the order. There's a groovy drag n' drop function on the songs so you can do that.
By the way, my smart money's on "Mirror in the bathroom", "Lithium" and "The Letter" for next week's playlist. Just entre nous.
Not that Dorian's predictable, but I think you're right, fp. And neither The Swedes, The Switchblade nor The D*me stand a puss in bedlam's chance.
Which is why I won't bother adding to the main site another A Bit Bonkers Abba track, "Me & I", which casts Frida as a split personality Jekyl & Hyde type...
SM
No no - he's actually never predictable. It's just that you almost CAN'T NOT include those three songs. They are so central to the theme. Of course I realise that if he's reading this he's probably instantly exluded them. Um, morning Dorian.
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Goodness you know your ABBA! Think I've met my match there. Me & I is a fabulous song. Donded! But then schizophrenia seems to be a reacurring theme with the Swedes - "One of us is lonely, one of us is only waiting for a call..." and then there's also "Two for the price of one"....
Just thought of another Geordie one - "away with the show folks" referring to the travelling fairs and the travellers who run them. Remember the Hoppings, you Geordie lads n' lasses?
"Of course I realise that if he's reading this he's probably instantly exluded them. Um, morning Dorian"
Now, we leave lots of comments on Dorian's blog - yet he leaves none on ours....
Away with the fairies.
Of course, down in the soft South, it's 'a sandwich short of a picnic', DsD. Also:
- a screw loose
- not the full shilling
- bats in the belfry (presumably the origin of 'he's bats')
There must be a Cockney rhyming slang too - only one I've seen is 'he's a bit Mum & Dad'
Not sure what the technical term is for someone who is pathologically addicted to blogging about playlists ;-)
Well one that's a dead cert is My Mind's Playing tricks On Me, he went so far as to give a hint, but it would have been my first post anyway. So Dorian, if you are reading, don't think that the hint was cheating!
French doesn't have these kind of expressions, or at least they're not common, which is a shame. Closest I can think of is "il a un grain". Portuguese on the other hand, is full of poetic expressions like that. My favourite is, if you've got acne, you've got a "cara da area mijada" which is quite pretty but means "a face like peed-on sand". So for madness, I'll have to do some research.
Ejay I'll see your peed on sand and stand you a "face like a blind cobbler's thunb".
Crazy (the last track on the Barenaked Ladies LP Gordon) has a fine selection of these:
The lights are on but nobody's home,
My elevator dosn't go to the top,
I'm not playing with a full deck,
I've lost my marbles.
It also contains the wonderful line "I flew over the cuckoos nest and I'm never ever coming back"
I thought the phrase was "He's absolutely Dagenham East", which is two stops short of Barking on the District Line.
But you really have to be a train geek to understand "Two HAAs short of an MGR".
As for the list, I bet Dorian doesn't pick the Marillion or Porcupine Tree songs.
And we all know he definitely won't pick the Schenker one despite the fact DD donded it.
I've just recently fallen head over heels in love with Porcupine Tree. Their massive 'Trains' was in my train playlist -on this blog . I actually looked at In Absentia to see if there were any suitable songs. Beetling over to the Mother Ship to see which P.T. song is on offer to dond it. Agree about Marillion - cat in hell's chance. But isn't he BIG?????
I've just recently fallen head over heels in love with Porcupine Tree. Their massive 'Trains' was in my train playlist -on this blog . I actually looked at In Absentia to see if there were any suitable songs. Beetling over to the Mother Ship to see which P.T. song is on offer to dond it. Agree about Marillion - cat in hell's chance. But isn't he BIG?????
I've just recently fallen head over heels in love with Porcupine Tree. Their massive 'Trains' was in my train playlist -on this blog . I actually looked at In Absentia to see if there were any suitable songs. Beetling over to the Mother Ship to see which P.T. song is on offer to dond it. Agree about Marillion - cat in hell's chance. But isn't he BIG?????
I've just recently fallen head over heels in love with Porcupine Tree. Their massive 'Trains' was in my train playlist -on this blog . I actually looked at In Absentia to see if there were any suitable songs. Beetling over to the Mother Ship to see which P.T. song is on offer to dond it. Agree about Marillion - cat in hell's chance. But isn't he BIG?????
Oops. guess I meant it. sorry guys.
The song's Blackest Eyes and I've placed it just after eels - mental. It has a guitar intro to gladden Darce's heart and also a wonderful lyric: "It's so erotic when your make up runs". Really hope it makes the list.
A few more that I like:
A couple of sandwiches short of a picnic
Two coupons short of a toaster
How about coining one of our own:
A couple of donds short of a 'spill?
Just a thought..
Donds for that one...
A couple of posts short of the full blog...
"... a rock song shy of a Final Ten".
DsD
AS a Morpeth lad, I know of St. Georges. An early (1970s) experiment in integrating the poor sould who lived there into the wider community was to allow them access to the town on Market Day. This was fine during winter, when not many Morpethians would set foot outdoors, but a little more dangerous during high summer when the town would be flooded with thousands of daytrippers. I often think their views of Morpeth may well have been influenced by various encounters with dozens of harmless, but definitely mentally challenged, strangers.
My favourite phrase about being 'crazy' - often used for very drunk as well - ia 'Away with the mixer'. I'm not sure what 'the mixer' is, but it could be "the brandy (mixer) I had after 15 pints that made me sick".
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