cantdog
Waybac machine
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2004
- Posts
- 10,791
and I'll tell you a story.
Coming to a familiar intersection on the red, I stopped and waited. And waited. Because it had been changed, I waited a long while indeed. The light system now allowed only one direction at a time to go, instead of two opposing directions.
For my money, it wasn't a particularly important or heavily used intersection. But it surely was a whole lot slower, now. Waiting, I remembered that the city engineer was John Frawley. I already had a beef with John for the timing of the lights on Union Street. I mean, you see the next set go red just before yours go green, every time. You will therefore go two blocks and stop again, two blocks and stop. The very opposite of a reasonable timing system.
Arriving home, I called the switchboard at city hall, and asked for the city engineer's office. I got a receptionist or maybe a secretary, of course, not John Frawley.
"I was at Oak and Hancock today. The traffic light has changed to one of those foolish one-direction-at-a-time lights."
She didn't get me. I told her I'd had to wait an extra few minutes and explained the thing again in different words.
"I just wanted to know if it's John Frawley I should be blaming fo this delay," I said.
"Those lights are going in all over the country, for safety reasons," she explained.
"You mean, everyone in the country is doing it?"
"Oh, yes."
"Well, that's a sheep's reason for doing anything, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Sheep think like that." Then I bleated into the 'phone: "They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it! They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it!"
She stifled a laugh and soothed me, but i wasn't going to get to talk to John.
Okay. Now comes the cool part.
Three days later (and I worked for city government, remember, as a fireman) my assistant chief suddenly bleated to a lieutenant: "They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it! They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it!" My ears perked right up, and I smole, as the fella says, a smile that went 'round my head three times, best beloved. In fact, I heard and overheard that phrase: "They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it! They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it!" many times over the course of the next few months.
I had started an expression. I had coined a phrase. I had left a mark in the language. And I may even have gotten a message across about the "sheep lights," as I call them.
Ever begun, personally, a new phrase or word that other people began using?
Coming to a familiar intersection on the red, I stopped and waited. And waited. Because it had been changed, I waited a long while indeed. The light system now allowed only one direction at a time to go, instead of two opposing directions.
For my money, it wasn't a particularly important or heavily used intersection. But it surely was a whole lot slower, now. Waiting, I remembered that the city engineer was John Frawley. I already had a beef with John for the timing of the lights on Union Street. I mean, you see the next set go red just before yours go green, every time. You will therefore go two blocks and stop again, two blocks and stop. The very opposite of a reasonable timing system.
Arriving home, I called the switchboard at city hall, and asked for the city engineer's office. I got a receptionist or maybe a secretary, of course, not John Frawley.
"I was at Oak and Hancock today. The traffic light has changed to one of those foolish one-direction-at-a-time lights."
She didn't get me. I told her I'd had to wait an extra few minutes and explained the thing again in different words.
"I just wanted to know if it's John Frawley I should be blaming fo this delay," I said.
"Those lights are going in all over the country, for safety reasons," she explained.
"You mean, everyone in the country is doing it?"
"Oh, yes."
"Well, that's a sheep's reason for doing anything, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Sheep think like that." Then I bleated into the 'phone: "They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it! They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it!"
She stifled a laugh and soothed me, but i wasn't going to get to talk to John.
Okay. Now comes the cool part.
Three days later (and I worked for city government, remember, as a fireman) my assistant chief suddenly bleated to a lieutenant: "They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it! They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it!" My ears perked right up, and I smole, as the fella says, a smile that went 'round my head three times, best beloved. In fact, I heard and overheard that phrase: "They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it! They're a-a-a-a-ll doing it!" many times over the course of the next few months.
I had started an expression. I had coined a phrase. I had left a mark in the language. And I may even have gotten a message across about the "sheep lights," as I call them.
Ever begun, personally, a new phrase or word that other people began using?
