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Odd Sayings

neither I nor Mr Zebra have ever heard of this:
It may be a Scottish-only thing. Plus potentially elements of North of England. Oh, and NIreland / Canada

... or this:
May *also* be a non-England thing (also as per see above). However: allegedly it is used within The League Of Gentlemen, which might be viewed as making it somehow broader-based.

If you've not watched The League of Gentlemen, then please carry-out all the necessary prep beforehand, or it could all be a bit too much to handle.

And it's better to watch >with< someone. Unless that someone looks as if their nose is foreshorted by sellotape
 
It may be a Scottish-only thing. Plus potentially elements of North of England. Oh, and NIreland / Canada


May *also* be a non-England thing (also as per see above). However: allegedly it is used within The League Of Gentlemen, which might be viewed as making it somehow broader-based.

If you've not watched The League of Gentlemen, then please carry-out all the necessary prep beforehand, or it could all be a bit too much to handle.

And it's better to watch >with< someone. Unless that someone looks as if their nose is foreshorted by sellotape
Welcome To ROYSTON VASEY You'll Never Leave !
 
It sounds like a stylised, low key wolf whistle...

My Eldest Daughter will say 'woody wut woo', to register something that is a little over the top - Faith has always been an Anglophile and loves all things British.
 
I used to work with a Glaswegian lad and it's 'cos of him that I sometimes call a small thing 'wee' he also used the (non politically correct) term 'bufti', meaning 'don't be soft'.
 
I was watching a YouTube computer channel (Explaining Computers) and the subject was ways of applying an instruction.
The guy doing the video said 'There is more than one way to cook a cat'.

But we always said 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'.

Which one do you recognize as being the norm ?
 
I was watching a YouTube computer channel (Explaining Computers) and the subject was ways of applying an instruction.
The guy doing the video said 'There is more than one way to cook a cat'.

But we always said 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'.

Which one do you recognize as being the norm ?
Of course, it's 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'. Or something like that.

Edit: It may obliquely refer to the practice of skinning a cat to make it look like a rabbit. My grandad would never buy a ready-skinned rabbit from a butcher - he'd go out and catch one himself. The reason being that he suspected them of trying to pass off a dead cat as a rabbit.
 
Perhaps cooking cats is more PC than skinning them.

However, before cooking your cat you have to skin it anyway.

Should you remove the skin before marinading it ?
 
before cooking your cat you have to skin it anyway.

The skin comes off a lot easier, after live-parboiling*. Youtube is horribly informative about such things. :(

*Feet off with a cleaver and Bob's your uncle! Now who was Uncle Bob . . .
 
The skin comes off a lot easier, after live-parboiling*. Youtube is horribly informative about such things. :(

*Feet off with a cleaver and Bob's your uncle! Now who was Uncle Bob . . .

My mother's brother ?
 
... The guy doing the video said 'There is more than one way to cook a cat'.
But we always said 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'.
Which one do you recognize as being the norm ?

"Skin a cat" is the norm, the best-documented version, and the version I first heard and have most consistently heard.

I have heard someone (e.g., in a meeting, usually with mixed company) switch the phrasing to "cook a cat" (or some similar phrasing about a cat) on rare occasions. I never got the sense this was a well-known alternative version of the saying. My impression was always that the speaker decided to allude to the old saying but without invoking the gruesome concept of skinning the cat.
 
The thing is, on the occasion where I've heard the phrase (can't say I really use it much, no particular reason) I never actually think about the concept of actually literally skinning a cat. (And judging by the recent posts on the subject here which have turned my stomach somewhat) it may be just because I don't like to think about things like that.

Or, is it because the phase (like so many other phrases) just has a general meaning of its own which isn't the 'literal' meaning? If you see what I mean?
 
"Nothing is impossible". Technically true, as even in hard vacuum there is quantum flux.

"Rules are made to be broken" Catch cry of the sociopath.

"Good things come to those who wait" Because the world is full of patient millionaires standing in queues.
 
The expression 'Bob's your Uncle' used to puzzle me as a child, as I did indeed have an Uncle Bob.
I've got an Auntie Jill I haven't seen for decades who was married to a Bob for a while, I don't know if that technically briefly made him my Uncle though?
 
I've got an Auntie Jill I haven't seen for decades who was married to a Bob for a while, I don't know if that technically briefly made him my Uncle though?

Yup. Spouses of parents' sisters and brothers are honorary uncles and aunts.
 
One of the old Northern UK sayings which Ms Petes has never been able to get a handle on is the one where women are referred to as (say) "Janet Smith that was" ie Smith was her maiden name. Simply can't get her head round it.

Yup, hereabouts it'd be 'Janet Smith as was'. Can't see why it's so hard!
 
“Hopping the wag” – which I always believed to be a London expression, and which the old man accused me of many times as a lad when bunking off school.

The old Man – you been hopping the wag again boy
A young me – No Dad
The old Man - You sure..?
Me – Yeah ‘course Dad
The old Man – Then ‘ow comes you can get up to a 103 break at snooker, you’re only 13 for Christ’s sake.
A young me – Erm.

It’s because I spent most of my teenage years hopping the wag in the local snooker hall, when I should have been in class :D
 
I had a friend with a welsh girlfriend once, who would say things such as "who's shoe's are those boots" or "who's jacket is that coat" and "who's car is that van" etc, I found it really sweet.
 
Hmm. Took me ages to work out what you found odd about those constructions. I think I must speak like that a bit. Evidently I am more Welsh than I realised.
You are from the same neck of the woods, likewise when she would say one of her jems, I would laugh and she would look at me like I was mad.
 
Yup, hereabouts it'd be 'Janet Smith as was'. Can't see why it's so hard!

Got to admit I just don't get this one.

In 'Last of the Summer Wine' Marina refers to Norman Clegg as 'Norman Clegg that was'.

As he is stood there, and clearly still is Norman Clegg, why does she use this ?
 
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