My mother refers to the practice of using the spoon out of the sugar bowl to stir one’s tea, then returning it to the sugar bowl thus making the sugar brown and lumpy “doing a Leslie” as she had a friend called Les who always did this.
She had other examples. It’s what she did instead of telling jokes, maybe.
do you have any examples of this kind of thing from yr own experience, where you, your friends or rellies uses someone’s name as a general epithet for a particular practice?
also “doing a Neil” means going to the toilet just as dinner is being served. My sister’s first husband Neil apparently always did this.
and “doing an auntie Lou” meant going to the toilet immediately after dinner to avoid helping w/ the washing up, with additional comedy value on account of her name obv.
“Mrs Wardles”—having bits of food left in the corners of your mouth after eating. I never knew this character.
There’s this guy at work, Richard, and he always comes out with the most inane and boring stuff, totally unfunny, and relentless, all day long it is. But no one really says anything, because although Richard seems quite chipper, everyone knows he’s a bit sad underneath. It was something to do with his ex-wife running off with his brother, though no one really knows
This other guy, Mick, he can’t stand it. All day long Richard comes out with drivel, and Mick just wants to get on with his life. Then one day, Mick just couldn’t stand it anymore. After Richard had come out with something or other about how one of his sandwiches looked a bit like Richard Madelely, Mick stood up, in front of everyone and shouted “ARGH YOU ARE THE MOST BORING MAN IN THE ENTIRE WORLD”
and everyone looked shocked, Mick had crossed a line. Richard looked devastated. Mick felt awful, he shouldn;t have done that, and everyone knew.
Richard left to go to the toilet, looking crestfallen, and Richard wondered how to make amends
When Richard returned, he looked a lot better though, and exclaimed happily, “have you ever bought a packet of donuts that look like the Three Wise Men, when you hold them to the side?”
Mick banged his head against the desk
We called that, Doing a Mick from that day onwards
My mom had a friend whose tastes ran to Country Kitchen and dusty pastels and stencils and grape-vine wreaths and calico. To this day we refer to that whole aesthetic as “Auntie Cheryl”.
The band use the verb “tombsing” on a regular basis, to denote dicking around playing random instruments aimlessly, usually while other people are trying to discuss something. Created in honour of our flute player (it is his surname), who frequently does just this.
My father-in-law used to drive north regularly to buy used cars, and noticed that people in Greenfield, Tennessee had the biggest, gaudiest Christmas light displays on their houses. So now when we see a house that’s swamped with lights and mechanical reindeer and inflatable Santas and crap, we say “wow, that’s a real Greenfield Tennessee.”
sorry everybody &c
(i had to resist SO HARD not to post the spaghetti strap/speedo pic that’s like #3 in GIS, but some ilxors are at work and I figured it wouldn’t be kind)
I thought at first that “doing a Leslie” might be something like this:
i thought it was going to be john leslie. so my mental image was similar. but wronger.
Haha grimly, you are me. I expected to find this thread full of tales about when ilXorz were accused of rape by Ulrika Jonsson.
Ditto.
our family seems to have loads of these. top of the list:
1. if a door slams in an area of the house other than where anybody is actually situated, “Mrs Carr did it” (something to do with the former occupant of a house my mum lived in years ago)
2. particularly lurid/busy/1970s pub-like carpets are forever known as “Jeff & Pam carpets” in tribute to two neighbours mum and dad had years ago. I always imagine them looking like this:
ihttp://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MMPH/263462~George-Mildred-Posters.jpg
3. what used to be known as “Dad gags”—ie horribly corny jokes—have been known more recently to be called “Charlie gags” in some circles...although I’ve no idea why.
4. boil-in-the-bag foodstuffs (usually things like cod in butter sauce), and indeed any kind of processed pseudo-modern home-based convenience food, have for years in the 1vens household been known as “boil-in-the-Leslie”, named after a family friend who used to make liberal use of same.
Also over here re: J Leslie.
I wanted to hear about his shovel-like hands one more time.
Waht?!
He has very large hands, described by some as ‘like shovels’, which he puts to use in his frequent bouts of guaranteed-consensual sex
Ah. Cheers for that wonderful mental image!
when ilXorz were accused of rape by Ulrika Jonsson
I was accused of stealing McFly’s water by Ulrika Jonsson if that counts?
as “”“namedropping”“”?
Did she start her complaint with the words “As a wife and mother of two children...”?
To have “been walwynned” means to have started out on a completely innocent evening in which you were just going to have a swift half down the pub on the way home from work, but in which you end up getting horribly drunk, staggering home at 3am even though you know you have work the next day. This is named after a friend of mine who causes this phenomenon to happen whenever you bump into him in the pub.
doing a nath-kid: going to the potty in the middle of dinner. i always did this. once my parents put an elastic (?) in my sandwich which i didn’t realize, even when it was dangling from my mouth with lots of nutella.