FALLING FAR FROM THE TREE
Last week something funny happened on the Rockdale Fair and Rodeo social media page when they were announcing who the musical acts will be at this year’s Fair in October. The headliner for Saturday night, October 19 was first posted as Braxton Hicks. I saw that and wondered what mother would name their baby that?
For those of you not in the know, Braxton Hicks contractions are false labor pains that women sometimes get when they are pregnant, and they are named after John Braxton Hicks who was an English doctor who discovered them in the 19th century.
It turns out that the singer’s name is actually Braxton Keith, and the post was quickly taken down, but we sure had a good laugh about it around the office. And I apologize for embarrassing whoever posted it who possibly recently had a baby with false labor pains. -kwc When something is highly unlikely to happen, we English speakers have a saying for that: “When pigs fly.” We’ve probably all said it at one time or another. It turns out most languages around the world have a similar saying and some of them I think we should adopt.
Welsh: When Christmas will be in the summer and goosberries in winter.
Turkish: When a fish climbs a poplar tree.
Ukrainian: When the crayfish on the hill whistles.
Portuguese: On Saint Never’s day.
Thai: When 7-11 closes. German: I’ve seen horses puke before.
Serbian: When grapes grow on willows.
Polish: When a cactus grows on my hand.
Tagalog: When the crow turns white.
Danish: When there’s two Thursdays in a week.
Swedish: When the asphalt blossoms.
Spanish: When frogs grow hair. Or: When it rains upwards.
French: When chickens grow teeth; In the week with 4 Thursdays; and On Saint Glinglin’s day (an imaginary saint).
Scottish: When two moons in the sky shall shine.
Italian: When donkeys fly.
Hungarian: When it’s snowing red snowflakes.
Romanian: When I see the back of my head.
We have a few more: English: When hell freezes over; On a cold day in hell; Not in a month of Sundays.
Irish: When the sky falls to the ground.
Latvian: When the owl’s tail blossoms.
Korean: The sound of a ghost eating rice seeds.
Hindi: When the sun rises in the west.
Dutch: If the calves dance on ice; If the owls preach.
Algerian: When salt produces flowers.
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