Thursday, October 11, 2007

Idiom

English is Husbandly One's fourth language, not his first, but he speaks it phenomenally well. No, I don't mean he speaks well "for an immigrant", I tell you honestly that he has an extraordinary vocabulary. Other than the accent, you'd swear he had been born here... except when it comes to idiom.

God love him, after more than 25 years in this country, he still can't the slang right. Today he informed me it was "going to rain dogs and pigs", and I chuckled heartily. But for years, my favourite expression of his comes from a day he described lazy employees...."I caught them screwing the cow."

After I could breathe again, I explained that, when you are neglecting your duties, you are screwing the dog, not the cow.

He looked at me without blinking. "Maybe in Canada. But in my country, we're Real Men."

1 comment:

Kelly Fowler said...

oh my god. i love mario. that is just gorgeous. from now on, it shall rain dogs and pigs.