Monday, August 25, 2008
Book News
After damp start Brypat Books - open 1/365 - once against managed to pay for a few more repairs to the Stiffkey church. Two books, however, disappointed. Victoria Beckham's autobiography could not be shifted at any price and Frank Lampard's Totally Frank - hardback, first edition - was only taken off our hands when it was reduced to 5p. Popular culture is, perhaps, not quite as popular as publishers think. Or perhaps it is simply that Lampard's eyes are too close together and Vicky is slightly foxed.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
There's another Britishism whose meaning I'm not sure of: "slightly foxed"? And I had to ask another London pal o' mine here to define "taking the piss," but I still don't really get that either. Maybe it's cause I'm not good at it or something.
ReplyDeleteWhat is "slightly foxed"? Here a fox is a very sexy woman/man. Or, anyway, that's what it meant in the '80s.
'slightly foxed' just means a book is well-worn, creased spine, a few page corners may be folded back as bookmarks, the edges of the cover will likely be a bit battered.
ReplyDelete'taking the piss' means mocking someone or something, failing to treat someone/thing seriously, e.g. "are you taking the piss?" as my fellow slave at work said to me when i kept turning up 10 minutes late each morning, meaning "are you failing to take this incredibly pointless and tedious job seriously?"
I had the reverse experience as a Brit living in the US, trying to explain to American friends what the British verb 'to blag' means. For example, 'I blagged my way into the party'. It means to slightly misrepresent oneself or ones situation to gain some kind of advantage BUT it also means to succeed at an endeavour with really deserving to e.g. I blagged my way through my driving test. The origins of its use are (I think) in British underworld slang for a robbery, particularly an armed bank robbery.
ReplyDeleteI am quite surprised that there is no single word US equivalent.