La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
TODAY’S TOPIC IS SANGERALDOISMS. MY top chef and scholar, San Geraldo, looked to no avail for his pastry brush in November when he made his Moorish Pie (click here). I knew exactly where it was. But it wasn’t. So he made do, and he wasn’t happy about it. A couple of days ago, he opened the drawer in which I knew it would be and hadn’t been, a drawer he had previously checked, and there it was. “As big as brass,” he exclaimed. I asked, “Is that like ‘as bold as brass’?”
SAN GERALDO HAULED A large load of groceries home the other day. The sun was shining and when he returned he said, “I’m sweating like a stuck pig.” This is one of his most commonly used phrases (but only when he sweats). For years I’ve been telling him, “I think it’s meant to be ‘bleeding like a stuck pig’ or simply ‘sweating like a pig.’”
Pigs don’t actually sweat, although, if you stuck one, it would certainly bleed. And I keep explaining that to SG, to no avail. NOTE: The expression “to sweat like a pig” comes from “the iron smelting process in which hot iron poured on sand cools and solidifies with the pieces resembling a sow and piglets. Hence “pig iron”. (Thanks McGill University!) You don’t have to “stick” a pig to make that happen.
DUDO HAS A VERY specific sound he makes when he wants San Geraldo to get up and give him his office chair. He usually succeeds. Last night, SG came into my office and muttered, “I’ve been displaced. I had to give him the chair. That sound he makes is so plaintive it pulls on the guilt strings.”
I don’t know exactly what, anatomically, heartstrings are but I can more easily understand how they’d work. What would a guilt string even be attached to?
I should note however that, although I think this is a bizarre term, San Geraldo is not the only one who uses it and it’s become somewhat common. (I’m sure they’re all wrong.)
EVEN IF YOU SPEAK like San Geraldo, you’re welcome to take a walk with me on the beach today. Although I’ve been home for hours, so it’s not a very sincere invitation. Just look at the pictures.
The day started off with a lot of sun. By the time I finished my walk, the winds had picked up and the clouds were thickening. Shortly after, there was a brief rain, a lot of wind, and dark clouds. So, the day progressed kind of like my mood (except I don’t have wind).
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EL TEMA DE HOY ES los Sengeraldoismos. Mi gran chef y erudito, San Geraldo, buscó en vano su brocha de pastelería en noviembre cuando hizo su pastel moruno (haz clic aquí). Yo sabía exactamente dónde estaba. Pero no fue así! Así que se las arregló y no estaba contento con eso. Hace un par de días, abrió el cajón en el que sabía que estaría y no había sido, un cajón que había revisado previamente, y ahí estaba. “Tan grande como latón”, exclamó. Le pregunté: “¿Es eso como ‘tan atrevido como el latón’?”
SAN GERALDO LLEVÓ UNA gran cantidad de comestibles a casa el otro día. El sol brillaba y cuando regresó dijo: “Estoy sudando como un cerdo atrapado”. Esta es una de sus frases más utilizadas (pero solo cuando suda). Durante años le he estado diciendo: “Creo que debe estar ‘sangrando como un cerdo atrapado’ o simplemente ‘sudando como un cerdo’”.
En realidad, los cerdos no sudan, aunque si pones uno, seguramente sangrará. Y sigo explicándole eso a SG, sin éxito. NOTA: La expresión “sudar como un cerdo” proviene de “el proceso de fundición del hierro en el que el hierro caliente vertido sobre arena se enfría y solidifica con las piezas parecidas a una cerda y lechones. De ahí “arrabio”. (¡Gracias Universidad McGill!) No tienes que “pegar” un cerdo para que eso suceda.
DUDO TIENE UN SONIDO muy específico que hace cuando quiere que San Geraldo se levante y le dé su silla de oficina. Suele tener éxito. Anoche, SG entró en mi oficina y murmuró: “Me han desplazado. Tuve que darle la silla. Ese sonido que hace es tan lastimero que tira de las cuerdas de la culpa”.
No sé exactamente qué son, anatómicamente, las entretelas, pero puedo entender más fácilmente cómo funcionarían. ¿A qué se uniría siquiera una cuerda de culpa?
Sin embargo, debo señalar que, aunque creo que este es un término extraño, San Geraldo no es el único que lo usa y se ha vuelto muy común. (Estoy seguro de que están todos equivocados).
INCLUSO SI HABLAS COMO San Geraldo, puedes dar un paseo conmigo por la playa hoy. Aunque llevo horas en casa, no es una invitación muy sincera. Solo mira las fotos.
El día comenzó con mucho sol. Para cuando terminé mi caminata, el viento se había levantado y las nubes se estaban espesando. Poco después, hubo una breve lluvia, mucho viento, y nubes oscuras. Entonces, el día progresó como mi estado de ánimo (excepto que no tengo viento).
I had a friend who was from Spain in my Zumba class a couple of years ago. She was kind enough to let me practice my Spanish on/with her. After one particularly challenging dance routine, i said “Estoy sudando como un cerdo!” She laughed and said in Spain the phrase is “Estoy sudando como un pollo,” which completely flabbergasted me because chickens don’t sweat. Another saying that translated differently from English was “Slept like a log.” She said in Spain it’s “Dormí como un lirón.” I had no idea what that was. Turns out it’s a dormouse and they sleep a lot.
TTPT:
Pigs don’t sweat either. I wonder why those two expressions. I love the slight variations on some expressions. I never assume metaphors and similes will directly translate. And just when I assume one doesn’t, it does!
Love that top photo of the lone sailboat.
SG speaks his truth. And you must translate it. What a team!!
Jim:
A theatre friend of ours in San Diego wrote poems for each of our birthdays one year. One of the lines in mine was “Who translates Jerry when others despair too?”
Too funny!
Maybe 100 years from now, scholars will be quoting SANGERALDOISMS, and here we are on the cutting edge of history.
David:
Years ago, his staff took notes and planned to publish a book of “Jerryisms.”
I believe the guilt strings are attached to the butt…to help get it out of the office chair
Jssw:
I hope it’s ONLY the “lifting part of the butt.”
One never gets tired of images of the sea, ever changing and the light is always captivating. SG should do what I do, simply say English is not my first language. In my case it is true and it explains it all.
laurent:
Well, SG is from South Dakota and I often tell people English, therefore, is not his native tongue.
🤣 brilllliant!
we finally had a sunny 50F degree day today! nyla will climb on us and sit on our chest if SHE wants the chair in which you are sitting.
anne marie:
Dudo has been known to jump up and squeeze behind SG to get him to move. It always works.
I like guilt strings better than heart strings. They pull on your guilt! If you have no guilt, nothing happens! I had no idea where sweating like a pig came from, but I did know that pigs don’t sweat – thanks for clearing up that little mystery. Dramatic changes on the beach walk. It is dead calm here.
Wilma:
Do you know anyone with no guilt? Was calm and mostly sunny earlier. Now it’s almost entirely cloudy and very windy.
You’re just going to have to grab the bull by the tail and look him straight in the eye.
Debra:
As SG would say, I simply have to go with the punches and roll with the flow.
We aren’t sailing here yet…but I’m happy to report the snow in Harrisburg is all but gone. Those skies look ominous…….
Mistress Maddie:
Constantly changing skies in recent days. Started off with some clouds. Then blue sky. Now all clouds. Windy, no wind, windy again. Rain possible this evening, but no snow.
I wonder if guilt strings go zing! zing! zing!
wcs:
Since judyshannon thinks they’re attached to one’s ass, I hope not.
Funny! As the New Yorker would say, “Block That Metaphor!” (Which should apply to similes too.) But I’m a little worried that I use expressions like this all the time and Dave is secretly snickering behind his hand.
Steve:
Interestingly, I use metaphors much less than Jerry who almost never gets them right. He usually says something, I laugh, and he then asks what it’s supposed to be.
My British mother was a master of the malaprop. I was called in to translate on regular basis. Some folks just have the gift–like SG.
Mary:
It is SO entertaining.
Nice beach walk, even with the dark clouds,
Carlos, right after we got Consuelo, gave her a little nibble of bread, and every day since then she comes to the table requesting a nibble, and every day since then Carlos gets annoyed that she’s asking for it. I told him he’s the dealer and she’s the addict. That’s their relationship.
Carlos will say of someone causing trouble, “She [he] is like a storm in a glass of water.”
My mother finally clued me in that it’s akin to a Tempest in a teapot.
Bob:
Do something with a cat once and that’s the routine. As for the storm in a glass of water, Jerry would ask “What’s wrong with that?” And I have to admit I knew immediately what he meant… I wonder if Jerry has actually said the same thing in the past.
When I was young my father
said to me: “Knowledge is
power, Francis Bacon.” I
understood it as “Knowledge is power,
France is bacon.”
For more than a decade I wondered
over the meaning of the second
part and what vvas the surreal linkage
between the two. If I said the quote to
someone, “Knowledge is power, France
is Bacon,” they nodded knowingly. Or
someone might say, “Knowledge is
power” and I’d finish the quote “France
is Bacon” and they wouldn’t look at me
like I’d said something very odd, but
thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher
what did “Knowledge is power, France
is bacon” mean and got a full 10-minute
explanation of the “knowledge is
power” bit but nothing on “France is
bacon”. When I prompted further explanation
by saying “France is bacon?”
in a questioning tone I just got a “yes”.
At 12 I didn’t have the confidence to
press it further. I just accepted it as
something I’d never understand.
It wasn’t until years later I saw it
written down that the penny dropped.
Answer by Lard_Baron to a question
on Redditin2011: “What word or phrase
did you totally misunderstand as a child?”
I love this! However, France IS bacon!
I never know whether to laugh or cry when I hear these variances on terms and idioms.
There was a English comedy series in which a fellow “CJ” constantly mixed metaphors and idioms.
In our hour they are called CJisms”
Urspo,
I laugh or groan depending on who says it.