My, My, My ... My Mind Meanderings ... February 2024

 

I don’t know who Cooter Brown is but I’ve heard all about him.  For instance, ‘That guy was drunker than Cooter Brown’, ‘His brother is crazy as Cooter Brown.’ ‘His sister’s bad luck is worse than Cooter Brown.’

Cooter Brown has many difficulties it seems …

I have heard good people say, ‘Goodness gracious’… and the super-sized, ‘Goodness Gracious ALIVE’… which always sounds sacramental and mocking of the Lord.

Sometimes people will say, ‘Hey, I’ve been around the block a few times.’  And, me? Oh, I’ve been around the block a few thousand times.  The cars sit in the garage so long without going anywhere; I start ‘em up and drive around the block a few times each week.  So, there.

Whenever Mom Goddard hears of something odd, she says (and I love this phrase) … ‘The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing…’  

Those hands need to pay attention to one another.  Just like Cooter Brown.

Whenever someone has done something wrong, the first thing they say is, ‘Now, don’t go biting my head off’… In England, they say, ‘Now, don’t go biting my face off’… Ugh, just the imagery of biting a face off like sicko serial killers …

I have never understood the phrase, ‘wet behind the ears’ … It’s been a long, long time since someone told me I was ‘still wet behind the ears.’ … And, I’m not going to Google to see the history of that phrase.  Whenever I don’t have a reference for something like this, I always say that it is from Shakespeare because no one argues that point … or I say it is from the Bible … old testament, and again, no one argues that point either.  Just tell folks the reference is Shakespeare or Old Testament and they will think you a brain-eee-ack …

I do know the phrase, ‘He’s getting long in the tooth’.  People say that often to me… ‘You are getting long in the tooth’… I think it is a horse reference.  I’ll tell you about my pony, Oliver, sometime.  It’s a good story and you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.  They might be long in the tooth. 

I’m the lucky kid who actually got a pony for Christmas… you know, back when I was ‘still wet behind the ears’…

I can only think of a Mama Cat licking her kittens behind the ears… is that where this phrase came from?  I’m as confused as Cooter Brown.

This meandering thought essay will continue … just don’t go biting my head and face off …