What phrase or saying have you heard all of your life, and are amazed to find a whole generation that doesn't know what it means?
At a family barbque I asked everyone if they knew what was meant in the phrase “You can’t catch me ‘cause the rabbit done died!” in Aerosmith’s song “Sweet Emotion.”
Only two people knew, and they were my age. The younger ones didn’t have a clue. Just sang the words because they were there!
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I’ve never even heard of the song, if that tells you anything.
“The proof is in the pudding.” I’ve had this said to me many times and didn’t know what it really meant. I still don’t know. Not because no one has told me, I just don’t get how it came to be a saying. I even looked up the history and still don’t get it.
Probably comes because if the pudding doesn’t jell and thicken then you did it wrong. If it jells and thickens that’s proof that you did it right. That’s what I always took it to mean, anyway.
@Ponderer983 It is short for ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, which makes more sense. – to test something properly you have to experience it yourself.
@Dutchess_III Nope, sorry. I’m familiar with their most well-known songs, but I’ve never heard this one or heard of it.
You’ve heard of Aerosmith,surely?
ANYWAY @Fly…now you’ve heard the song, or at least heard “of” it, if you didn’t listen to the link I posted, and you know it has the phrase, “Ya can’t catch me ‘cause the rabbit done died!” in it. Do you know what that means?
My most recent experience of this was with the word “silo.” I work with a lot of 20-somethings and their only use for the word was in a business context (all the people work in their own silos and don’t share information) with absolutely no awareness of the agricultural origin of the term. I was stunned.
@Kayak8
Interesting. The agricultural definition of silo is the only one I ever knew.
And of course the derived one for missiles, but that is it.
@Kayak8 You have heard of rocket silos, haven’t you? Still, it’s peculiar expression. Part of our ever-changing language. I wonder why we borrow old words, like silo and give it a different meaning. I guess I’m saying: neologisms are preferable to another word with multiple meanings.
Ain’t no great shakes,
The skinny
Catch you on the flip-side
Keep on truckin’
Hairy Eyeball
Good night, John-boy
@Fly Sweet Emotion is one of the greatest songs ever.
silos? I guess I’m not surprised. I’m one of the few farm boys on here. It’s a little sad.
We went to an Eagles’ tribute band concert a few weeks ago. A 25-year old friend of a friend went with us and said he’d never heard one Eagle’s song before in his life. Unbelievable but true. My husband asked him if he’d ever been in an elevator. He said of course he had been in an elevator. “Well, you’ve heard the Eagles then,” my husband said.
Anyway, I said the rabbit died phrase to my stepdaughter when she was pregnant for the first time four years ago and she hadn’t heard about the rabbit test before.
@Dutchess_III This was my introduction to “the rabbit died” you don’t have to watch the whole thing. It’s at 1:43, and is mentioned a couple of times thereafter. I remember watching this when I was a kid and my mom was pregnant. I asked her about the rabbit and she told me about how that was how they tested for pregnancy. I didn’t like the explanation, I’m glad that we now have other ways to test for pregnancy.
@wilma No kiddin’!
@Adirondackwannabe I’m a farm boy! I mean…girl. I assume missile silos are called that because farm silo’s were planted on top of them so they couldn’t be seen from satellite.
@cruiser….Keep On Truckin’ Man! Well…what good is a picture without a soundtrack!
I remember “Bookin’” came out in the 70’s. I understood that it meant to “run away swiftly…. IE: “The cops showed up and we booked man!” I had to ask, though, the first time I heard it. Someone said they’d been smoking weed across the street before school, and the cops showed up and “We booked it to school, man!” I asked what they meant and they told me….and I rolled with it even though it didn’t…and still doesn’t…really make sense! I still use it. :) I booked it to work yesterday…I was running 15 minutes LATE!!
My former students didn’t recognize ‘knick-knacks,’ ‘whatnots,’ ‘Stevie Wonder,’ ‘Hey daddy-o,’ and many more. I felt like I had to watch teen-tv to be able to get concepts from their generation to explain new concepts to them.
I had to explain the concept of mix-tapes to my daughter not too long ago. She said “Oh! A prehistoric playlist!”
@Dutchess_III A missile silos are shaped exactly like a farm silo, just the top comes off.
@Dutchess_III No, I don’t understand that phrase.
@Kayak8 I’m completely surprised that people don’t know what an actual silo is! I’ve never stepped foot on a farm in my life (outside of a kindergarten field trip), but I can’t remember not knowing what I silo was. I’ve never even heard it used in any other context.
@Fly If you ever have a farm question feel free to ask me.
@Fly Once upon a time, in order to find out if a woman was pregnant, they would inject a rabbit with her blood. If she was pregnant, the rabbit died. That’s how they knew. Wait…WAIT!!!! I just found out this isn’t exactly true!!! I did not know this until just now. Rabbits died, but not because of the woman’s blood, but because they had to kill them to examine their ovaries because….hell. Just read the link. Wow. All through the 60’s and 70’s the phrase “The rabbit died!” was whispered to indicate that a woman was pregnant, usually out of wedlock. Well, hell. The rabbit died whether the woman was pregnant or not.
ANYWAY, in the song, “You can’t catch me ‘cause the rabbit done died!” meant he’d knocked up some girl so he was running away. Punk.
I recently said, “That and a 25ยข will get you a phone call home”.
After a pause, my 9-year-old daughter says, “Why would you need a quarter to make a phone call?”
She, and I bet most children, have no idea what a pay phone is.
@cprevite I always said “That and a dime will get you a phone call”. ;)
My kids know what pay phone are, but I don’t know if they have ever used one.
@Dutchess_III, I knew why the rabbit always died, my mom went into detail with her explanation. I’m sure that is because I pressed her for an answer. I couldn’t understand why Dick was so excited that a bunny was dead. Even if he was going to be a father.
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