Trouble with phrases or common sayings?

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Oh here's a good one, and this one kind of bleeds into the "humor paradox" thread/subject area.....

How about the runnning gag about people, i.e. couples, "washing their underwear together" -- what's up with that one? Using context clues I'm guessing it's some sort of joking reference to how the woman gets pregnant. But where's the basis for that one? I hardly understand it, let alone see the humor in it, and yet NTs will always laugh for a good while over this one. Do THEY even understand it?

I have learned some common sense so I know what he said he didn't mean but I still don't understand what he means. My trick is if someone says something that doesn't make any sense, just assume it's a figure of speech. I'm always asking people what do they mean.

To hear it, I would think it means that they have a very good relationship, because they're washing their underwear together (a cooperative relationship). However, that's not funny. I've actually never heard this, so I don't know what the context is. Bizarre.

Maybe it means that they have to wash their underwear after sex, so doing it together means they slept together?

I googled it, but didn't see anything helpful. I did learn however that apparently there is such a thing as "self-cleaning underwear."

Last edited by LostInSpace on 01 May 2007, 12:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Napoleon was exiled to Elba for a while. Maybe the phrase is from his point of view, meaning that he was "able" before he set eyes on the island where he was to be imprisoned, because in captivity he could no longer carry out his megalomaniac plans.

That's a possibility. I had forgotten that Elba was an island.

I forget the name for it, but it is probably a big mistake. He probably meant "It will be a cold day in hell". Hell is supposedly in like the center of the earth, and burning hot, so it wouldn't ever be cold. I think this is PHILS problem, not ours!

Steve

I sometimes get my words and saying muddled up my family laugh and call it a(my real name)ism. More often or not they are well known old sayings.

Things such as "How are you?" and "Good night" don't bother me at all and I can understand them, but once someone asked me "How are you doing?" online and I asked "Doing what?" and they explained to me that it's the same as "How are you?", lol.

But most of the time, I don't take things VERY literally. I only have problems with abstraction, in a way that I make literal abstractions.

What's a literal abstraction?

i didn't think palindromes were meant to have a meaning, and that they were there purely as a play on the structure of words...

I don't exactly know if that's the word for it, and most of the words/expressions I've done that to are in Persian but I'll try to cite an example... the newest one I made, lol. There is this word that can be translated in English as "facer" or "face-maker" and as I learnt later it means an artist. Before I knew that I was thinking of an artist who only draws faces or only makes faces out of clay.

I did this too until my mom oneday told me. I suppose everyone had a good laugh at my expense. I would approach a cashier at 11 or 12 years of age, they would ask "how are you?" and I would tell them exactly "how I was!" Then the cashier and my mom would exchange glances basically saying with body language "is this kid for real?" "this is histarical"! Finally, my mom filled me in that I was supposed to answer "fine, thank you".

I used to struggle with mataphors, however I came to make up my own. I would make up random metaphores for anything, often disregarding the "standard ones" for my own. My son does it too, however he is more with the "accronyms" as opposed to metaphores, which he generally does not get. I remember when he was working on music, learning the order of the notes, EGBDF, the standard accronym is "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge". The made his own, "Every Girl Buys Dog Food". It was kind of funny, because the teacher tried to teach the first one to the class, and he was the only one who had no idea what fudge had to do with music. So, in trying to explain it to him, he thought he had to make his "own". Now he does it all the time it is a good learning tool for him. Anyway, I'm off topic, so I'll shut up now!

I never understand why people say things the way they do, or expect me to say things just because they do. My boyfriend asks all the time if I love him because I don't say it all the time, and I'm just thinking "if I'm with him, and I'm not acting like I hate him, why doesn't he just realize that instead of asking me and making me say it all the time?" Same with hugs in e-mails. Once a week, because I never respond with it really, he'll send me nothing but an e-mail full of "hugs and kisses" just to see if I respond. I never do, and he'll ask me if I got his letter, then ask why I didn't respond, and I'm just like, what's the point of stopping thinking just to type it when you know you're gonna get a hug from me when you come over... He's getting used to it, but I think he's used to typical people who just do that cutesy stuff to do it, I don't see a point in doing it, therefore I don't.

as for the hot seat in hell thing-he's dr. phil... he might very well have a seat lined up there waiting, maybe he had to do a deal with Satan to get the show? o.O lol, sorry if that offended anyone >.<

other than that I couldn't possibly imagine what the hell he means by it.

I agree, it is along the lines of "don't go to bed angry".
I think it has something to do about regretting your anger. Perhaps because you may not wake up and be able to make things right in the morning. Lets just say you are mad at someone, but you are being sort of irrational or it is the sort of thing that you will forgive them shortly for. What if the next day you could not make up? Either they die, or you die, something cataclysmic happens to prevent you from ever making amends with them.
It sound ominous and somewhat biblical. We don't use the word "wrath" very much in modern day English unless we are trying to be a little flamboyant. I think it is a metaphor that comes from another people of time long ago. It is not part of the modern lexicon, therefore I can see why Aspies would have a particularly hard time with it.

I see nothing wrong with going to bed angry, maybe thats why it makes no sense to me. If I'm angry, I'm angry. Time has no bearing on it. I'm more of a "sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning" type.

Yeah, when I was asked that, I'd think back over the day and the past week. Maybe I'd say "well I had a cold last week, but I'm feeling better now. I'm worried about a test I'm taking tomorrow, but I'm going to the zoo today so I'm excited about that..."

I was still doing that to an extent until probably 3-5 years ago.



Hey, I'm glad that's working for him! Acronyms have never really done anything for me...though maybe if I made up my own...