Re 'bubbler' that is what we call them in Australia. Molly was kind enough to send me a magnet with a drawing of a bubbler which says 'where's the bubbler'.
I am familliar with GEF's and Troub's expressions as I have an English husband. 'He's about as much use as t**ts on a bull' or 'as much use as a chocolate teapot' are a couple of his favourites.
The most famous Australian expression is probably 'fair dinkum'. All it means is 'is that so' or 'really'. Our Prime Minister has been criticised recently for using some hoary old 'Ockerisms' that nobody says anymore - such as 'fair shake of the sauce bottle' which means the same as 'don't come the raw prawn with me' i.e. don't bullsh**t me (or 'are you fair dinkum').
Easterners refer to "pop" as "soda" and if you ask for a "soda" (meaning an ice cream soda) you'll get what they call a 'frappe'. And although it's not really a 'saying', a lot of places in New England as if you want your coffee "regular" -- which I always thought was plain, black coffee, but if you say yes, they bring it with cream and sugar already added! Took me forever to get the hang of it when I moved up to Boston from Ohio.
I just need a little downtime.........
We don't use the terms 'soda' or soda pop' at all. We either say 'soft drink' or we use the brand name. We used to say 'cordial' but that has fallen into disuse.
These are all great!
Another one here in NE Missouri, soda or pop is sody and Pepsi or Coke are universal with most.
"They will never forget you 'till somebody new comes along"
1948-2016 Gone but not forgotten
We say pop here in Atlantic Canada.
Locally, many people will pronounce the word wash as worsh.
Okay, I keep putting this topic off cuz there are soooo many Oregonisms, but I gotta put this one in.. Ill add more later.. but this isnt so much a saying as it the CORRECT pronunciation... (this is important people, practice...)
it's pronounced 'OR-EEE-GUN
not OR-UH-'GONE
makes me madder then a wet hen when a buncha Californicators start yakkin' about OR-UH-GONE when they dont even know their head from a skunk hole!
now I'm gonna think about those colloquialisms some more.. Im sure I can come up with a few...
Shoot.. gotta go get Sarah to bed, she's running around like a chicken with it's head cut off....
Again, not so much an expression, but the way we speak. We tend to put prepositions at the end of the sentence. "where are you stopping at?" "I want to go with" "where are my keys at"
Then there is the phrase, dimes to doughnuts... means you are sure about something. "Dimes to doughnuts Tim will sing ICTYW"
Let's see, we wear gymshoes, not sneakers.
We measure distance in time. "How far is Target?" - "It's about 5 mins away".
Also, I think most cities traffic reports are given in delay times. For example, "it's a 20 min. delay from the bridge to the tunnel". Again, we give real time. "it's 40 mins from the bridge to the tunnel"
This one brought back a memory for me. I've said before that alot of my family is from down Brooke's way and I remember as a kid, when they came up north for the first time to visit us, and one of the kids asking for a "sody". I about died laughing because it seemed so funny to me. My mom smacked me and told me to be nice! Us Yankees call it POP!
He sings it high, he plays it low
Is that where the expression "sody" comes from? My husband's family is from St. Louis and he spent his Summers there. He often says "sody". Here all this time I thought he was just being annoying!
We don't call it "pop" , we call it soda. Older people (like my grandfather) called it "soda water".
Julie -That's right! You're the only other person that would keep me from dying of thirst by directing me to the "bubbler"!