Mama de Cleo rides again

[cleolinda]

So yesterday I got absolutely zero work done because my dogs spent all morning barking hysterically at stove repair people. The two guys themselves were nice; they've been out to our house a total of three times to install a new range for us (and I'll have to take a picture of it; it's totally space-age awesome and... a bit difficult to cook on,

Comments

[kauricat]

I am a big fan of your mother. And I wish I had her confidence, because I have paid that damned Sears "service call" charge MORE THAN ONCE. Damn their eyes.

But never again, so thank your mother for me!

[cleolinda]

Now, I don't know if every service call charge is a rip-off. I just know that the "multiple trips for one uncompleted installation" one, apparently, is.

[kauricat]

Duly noted. I shall only bare my fangs if they're gouging for installation. :)

[fineprnt]

Completely and totally OT: I adore the phrase "Damn your/his/their eyes" but haven't found any historical source or evolution for it. Not that I take you for an expert, but do you have any idea about that?

[kauricat]

I'm sorry, I don't! I have wondered about its origin too, but honestly I got it from Young Frankenstein. :)

[fineprnt]

Hrm, well, I snatched it from a historical adventure novel. Combined with your Young Frankenstein, it must be a legit phrase, and the search continues!

In other news Young Frankenstein is still a ridiculously rad movie.

[kudzita]

I don't think this is the Ur-Source or anything, but "damn their eyes" does appear in an old folk song. Johnny Cash's cover of it is excellent.

[fineprnt]

Aha, I seeeeee. Another Google search on my part has helped clear this up somewhat. It appears to be a legit phrase then!

[aleia_jade]

Not the original, but another historical source; Charles Dickens uses it indirectly (and long-windedly) in Oliver Twist:

"...a very common imprecation concerning the most beautiful of human features, which, if it were heard above only once out of every fifty thousand times it is uttered below, would render blindness as common a disorder as measles"

Which my footnotes simplify to "D*** your eyes!"

[evilstorm]

Not that this is a particularly reliable source either, but I know that O'Brien uses it in the Aubrey/Maturin series, and his books are very, very accurate. So that puts it to the royal navy of 1800~, at least.

[fineprnt]

I'm pretty sure that's the time period of the novel I first read it in, so yeah, that makes sense. Gracias!