When and why did people start saying 'from here to Timbuktu'? Why don't they say 'from here to Tegucigalpa' or 'from here to Ouagadougou' or 'from here to Ulaanbaatar' or even 'from here to Kealikakua, Hawaii, where the humuhumunukunukuapua'a go swimming by' instead?
Although careful readers of the previous paragraph know that Kealikakua is in Hawaii, how many of them can match the other four places with their countries?
Why do people in the northern states say "I don't know [person's name] from Adam's off ox" but prople in the southern states say "I don't know [person's name] from Adsm's house cat"?
Why do fools fall in love?
Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone? Oh where, oh where can he be? With his ears cut short and his tail cut long, oh where, oh where can he be?
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?
Who is Sylvia?
Now I shall be singing 'I wonder as I wander' all day long!
ReplyDeleteMy work here is finished. Thank you, Janice!
DeleteNow we're getting somewhere. Is there no end to their obtuseness/talent/evil? Thank you, Tasker.
ReplyDeleteSince geography has never been a topic I know much about you have me stumped there. Fools fall in love all the time and no one knows why. And we always said we don't know who/whatever from a hole in the ground. We will be looking for that little dog forever. I have three different versions of Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor. And I recently heard another. The only Sylvia I can think of is Sidney.
ReplyDeleteYou have done a thorough job of reading the post! Geographically, Timbuktu is in Mali, Tegucigalpa is in Honduras, Ousgadougou is in Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), and Ulaanbaaktur is in Mongolia. Anoter Sylvia is Sylvia Fine Kay, the wife of Danny Kaye, but the Who Is Sylvia? I had in mind appears in Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Thank you for your comment, Emma. It's always good to hear from you, even though I don't know you from a hole in the ground.
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